Tales of a Familiar
by kayangelus
Summary: It is Louise's last chance to prove that she is actually a mage. When Louise summons Nightingale, a former human Planar Shepherd, initially everyone believes that she has summoned a familiar. Soon all of Halkegenia must learn that this man is no mere familiar, and Louise must either learn to control her familiar, or be swept up in his tides of change.
1. The Sacred Kidnapping

My first story, so still figuring out formatting/editing. Sorry if this chapter disappears and then reappears a few minutes later...

* * *

Nightingale was born a human two decades ago. He still _looked_ human when he was in his original form. However, he wasn't human. He had given up his humanity a little over a year ago now, for more powerful, binding himself to one of the planes of existence. Today, he was reaping the cost of sacrificing his humanity all those months ago.

The day had started out pretty normally for him. He was just enjoying his time in Neverwinter with some at a tavern. The table had 5 other residents. A dwarf that was downing gallon after gallon of ale was in a heated discussion about cultural superiority and civilized behavior versus living one's life, with an elf that was carefully sipping some expensive wine.

There was a kobold at the table how was part taking in water to stay sober. The reason for his choice of sobriety lay behind him; lying on the ground behind the kobold were three humans, "dragon hunters" as they called themselves who had had perfectly circular holes nearly a foot across carved out of their chests. The kobold simply wanted to be alert in case more idiots thought that they could legally attack him.

The other two were humans, a couple that were drinking each other's saliva as much as they drank their cheap wine. Not that they could not afford any better – after all, everyone at this table was a powerful adventurer – rather habit taught them to not be wasteful with money, even if they had enough to put dragon hordes to shame.

The six of them were discussing some adventurers they had been on, and having a normal day getting to know each other when Nightingale suddenly felt a lot of magical energy behind him. And that was straight up _weird_, because he didn't have **detect magic** up. The two who did – the kobold sorcerer and the elf wizard – both looked straight at the portal, while the other three just looked at them confused.

"_I beg of you..."_

As Nightingale heard the voice, he also felt a strong force, starting to pull him in. _This doesn't feel like begging_

"What is this?"

He asked his friends, the two arcane masters only looking at him in confusion. Well, the kobold did. The elf, activated **Arcane Sight.**

"_My Servant who lives somewhere in the universe!"_

Well, that was an incredibly precise incantation. Can't possibly go wrong at all, or accidentally summon someone other than the intended target. Nightingale would have gone on with the sarcastic thought, except his chair was sliding towards the portal thingy. He stood up to try to brace himself, but there was nothing to brace himself against. He could feel himself being pulled in.

"It is a ritual that is mostly Conjuration, part Illusion, and part Enchantment!"

The elvish wizard kindly explained. _Now I know why most of the bar isn't noticing it_. Although there were a few there who _had_ noticed the spell.

"_Oh sacred, beautiful, and strong familiar!"_

_Sacred? Yes. Beautiful? Beyond the realm of mortals. Strong? Yes, even if not too powerful. Familiar? Hell no!_

"**Greater Dispel Magic!"**

He managed to concentrate enough to get off the spell, but it wasn't enough. The portal didn't disappear, and now part of Nightingale's arm was through the portal. Suddenly, people in the bar realized what the commotion was about, when they noticed part of his arm was _missing_.

"_I desire and please from the bottom of my heart!"_

A dwarf was now attached to Nightingale's waist. And the two of them were still being pulled in. A few others came rushing to the help, though so far only one of the humans at the table maned to get there as well. Honestly, this was rather impressive. It wasn't easy to drag a dwarf when he felt like being stationary. _The chant sounds like a customization of Planar Ally. The effects seem more in line with Planar Binding though_. Which, having become an outsider, sadly enough Nightingale was a valid target for.

"_Answer my guidance!"_

And then, suddenly Nightingale was gone. He seemed to just slide through the two trying to hold him down, and was dragged through the portal. He was just glad that someone had passed him his bag of holding. It would have sucked to leave all that gold behind. And by "sucked", he meant that he would have slaughtered whatever fool was summoning him. After all, even if he served the forces of "good" as they called themselves, and had retired from adventuring, he was still an adventurer at heart.

As he was being sucked through, the voices of his "friends" telling him 'good luck', 'have fun', 'work hard', and other such phrases entered his ears. Apparently they weren't too worried over him being kidnapped.

* * *

Elsewhere in the universe, Louise was having the most important day of her life. Today was her last chance at success.

She came from a prestigious noble family, and since "nobility comes from magic", that meant she should have been a powerful magician. Emphasis on _should._ She has been learning to cast spells since before should could walk, and studying magical theory since before she could read. After tremendous amounts of hard work, she had never succeeded at a single spell in her entire life.

This fact granted her the nickname Louise the Zero. Because this failure was of such epic proportions, she deserved a title for it. She hated that nickname, that insult. However, this didn't mean she didn't have any magical ability. Each time she tried to use magic something happened. The only problem was, it was always an explosion. Any spell that she cast always exploded. Not that it stopped her peers from laughing at her. Because when all a girl can do is blow up whatever she points a stick at, pissing her off is an _excellent_ idea.

Today would be different though. Today was the familiar summoning ritual, a tradition started by the founder Brimir himself. Each of the second years would get to perform the ritual, and summon a magical creature to serve as a magiliar.

The creature summoned would correspond to the mage's abilities, potential, element, needs, and destiny. If she managed to summon some powerful magical beast, it would prove to everyone that she was a powerful magician. Even if she summoned something trivial like a small frog, it would still prove that she was a magician.

However, her parents had told her that if she failed this ritual, she would be brought home from school, to prepare for her marriage to Wardes, as soon as possible. The thought of her fiance made Louise blush as she headed for the summoning grounds.

Shaking her head, she cleared the thought and marched ahead, keeping a careful stride while doing her best to radiate authority and confidence. While the other students joked around as they headed towards the summoning grounds, she walked with the dignity befitting of a noble. Today she would show them how much better she was...

* * *

Eventually Louise made it to the summoning grounds where Professor Colbert was taking attendance. Casually she got in line after he wrote down her name, waiting for her turn. She wasn't fidgeting at all. There was no way she was nervous. After all, there was no way someone of her breeding could fail such a simply spell...

Telling herself that, Louise waited for her turn, ignoring Kirche the Vulgar's insults. Louise and Kirche's families had been enemies for generations now, and for good reason. The Zerbests – Kirche's family – were a bunch of vulgar, barbaric, indecent Germanian thieves, who happened to be the neighbors of the upstanding, civilized, and sophisticated Valliere, a family that was the model of what nobility should be like. Kirche seemed to try her hardest to exemplify all of her family's vices.

She had spent her entire first year here doing her best to steal every girl's boyfriend, couldn't understand the most basics of civilized behavior, constantly did acts that should wait until marriage with hordes of men, and took every chance to show off her impressive body to anyone willing to look. She was essentially the school horse for the students.

And she had summoned a fire salamander... One of the rarest, and most powerful mystical creatures a mage could make into a familiar. Only Tabitha's dragon familiar was more impressive, and considering Tabitha was Kirche's friend, it only made Kirche look better.

_I will show her! I will show her how superior the Valliere are to the Zerbests!_

She would for the pride of her family, and the honor of her ancestors.

"Miss Valliere, please come forth!"

Professor Colbert called out over the voices of the students. Everyone quieted down, as Louise stepped forward. This was her second try today; she had failed once so far, and the line had continued. Of the precious few who didn't succeed the first time, her name was last in the Brimiric alphabet. Furthermore, everyone else had succeeded a second time. So she was truly the last person. It didn't matter though. She would succeed. And so, she raised her wand.

It was as if a spell had broken on the students around her, as the phrase _"Curiosity killed the cat"_ ran through everyone's minds. The entire audience pulled themselves away, dragging their familiars with them. Within seconds, no living creature was left within 30 mail of Louise, other than the professor, a bald, middle aged man named Colbert.

This was Professor Colbert's first day with Louise. Given how on her first try nothing had happened, he was confused as to why people were setting up barricades so far back from the girl. Some were even up against the wall, earth mages working in union to create waist high metal shelters everyone could kneel behind. Colbert had seen military units set up barricades with less coordination and precision!

Come to think of it, this had happened the first time Louise had gone. At that time, people had also told him...

"Professor Colbert, you should stand back. That is no man's land!"

Yes, that. _But why would it be so dangerous?_ Colbert wasn't sure. Louise ignored them, and concentrated on her spell. As bad as Louise was with magic, she excelled at the theory. As in, she was the school's best student in that aspect. And she had studied this specific ritual intensely for months now. She knew exactly how it should be done, and her wand moved with in a perfect motion as she cast the spell, allowing for no wasted movements.

"I beg of you..."

She began before allowing her voice to fill with pride. Nobles did not beg

"My servant who lives somewhere in the universe!"

Giggles came from the crowd. She ignored them.

"Oh sacred, beautiful and strong familiar!"

The spell required describing the familiar she wished for. Well, she wasn't picky. Any creature fulfilling those conditions was good enough for her.

"I desire and here I plead from my heart!"

Command started filling her voice as she spoke these lines. Her familiar, no matter how powerful, was still the servant and her the master.

"Answer my guidance!"

She demanded as she flicked her wand, and pointed it at the ground, releasing the spell.

The shock wave from the explosion was not enough to knock her down, but it covered her from head to toe in dirt. There was smoke over the area, and Louise peered into it, and noticed a figure standing there. _I succeeded. I did..._ Her rejoicing died in her throat as the smoke started to clear, and the laughter started up.

* * *

Nightingale looked up at the massive cloud of smoke and dust that surrounded him. _I'm pretty sure that is not supposed to happen when summoning me_. After a moment, he proceeded to take a deep breath, realizing he had been holding his breath as he got sucked through the portal. He had enough magical protection on himself that something trivial like a dust cloud didn't affect his ability to enjoy fresh, clean air at all.

As he stood there, he cast **prestidigitation** from his ring, cleaning himself, and waiting for the dust to settle. As far as he could tell, there were only two others within 30 feet; one was either a 12 year old, or a half-ling, standing some 10 feet in front of him. The other was a tall man, standing to Nightingale's right. This man seemed to have a wall of fire up in front of himself, acting as a shield. The wall disappeared in the fraction of a second it was taking Nightingale to register his existence.

No other beings could be detected by his Blindsight. He could sort of make out figures now beyond the dust cloud though. It looked like a crowd, forming a perfect half-circle perimeter some 80 feet from the halfling.

The half-ling looked like a girl. Her hair was covered with dirt, but Nightingale was able to make out small amounts of pink beneath all of that. Now that the cloud was starting to clear, she stared up at him. He stared back, and realized that she wasn't a halfling, just a 12 year old.

The perimeter was laughing for some reason. Now that he could make them out, Nightingale noticed that they were standing behind barricades of some sort, and that he was standing in the middle of a crater. That was 80 feet wide. As if they had set up the barricades expecting an explosion of just this size, centered on Ms. Pink. Still, that didn't make sense.

"Louise, did you summon a commoner?"

"That is just like you, summoning a human!"

"Wow Louise! You really are a Zero!"

Amidst those shouts that made no sense to me, I turned to the only person who was close enough, that could have possibly summoned me; Mr. Fire. He seemed to be a bald man, wielding a staff. The only other one with a staff seemed to be a blue-haired, halfling-sized girl. Everyone else was carrying wands.

"I ask you. Were you the one who summoned me?"

I asked him in perfect... whatever language my **Tongues** supernatural ability was translating it into. The crowd roared at that in laughter for some reason, for about two seconds, before going dead silent. The staff-guy just gaped at me. Pinky was blushing, and her jaw dropped. For this was the moment that the dust cloud had fully cleared, revealing to the audience my **Unearthly Beauty**.

It was a few seconds before noise returned. There was a lot of girls going "kyaaaaa", while guys seemed to be discussing whether I was a girl or not. I couldn't blame them; the spell made me as beautiful as a nymph. I may have been male, but I was more beautiful than any woman they may have seen in their lives. In fact, I had to _suppress_ the full extend of my beauty, less it kill them.

"Uh, hum. I'm sorry, but the one who summoned you was Ms. Valliere."

The staff guy said, pointing at the pink midget. _Really? Her?_ She seemed a bit young. Even sorcerers didn't start this young on magic at all usually. And summoning me would be at least a level 8 spell.

"_It is a ritual that is mostly Conjuration, part Illusion, and part Enchantment!"_

As I recalled those words, I realized that I didn't know how all of that worked for rituals. Maybe I should have studied more than just in-combat spells?

As I was contemplating this, the crowd regained its voice, and started laughing at "Louise" once again. As far as I could tell, her other nickname was "Zero", and everyone hated her. Or maybe not hated, but this definitely went beyond the usual levels of friendly jabs. So a bully victim summoned me? _Great. Hmmm, wonder if they carry a lot of loot on themselves._

"Mr. Colbert, can I try summoning again?"

Louise/Ms. Valliere asked.

"Absolutely not Ms. Valliere. This is a sacred ritual that decides an entire mage's life." _Wait... WHAT? Sacred? Mage? So an institution of Theurgology?_ "Trying again is blasphemy against the ritual itself!"

The staff guy – apparently a Mr. Colbert – answered back. Given that he was the only adult here, and in charge, he might have been something like a professor.

"But professor, I have never heard of anyone summoning a commoner before!"

As Louise said this, laughter broke out. Along with taunts about how she shouldn't sneak commoners in just because she knew she was going to fail. That made Nightingale raise an eyebrow. He, a lord of the Positive Planes was summoned here by this girl. She had enough power to drag him here against his will. And yet no one here could cast _**detect magic**_?

"Nevertheless Ms. Valliere, please proceed with the ritual."

As he said this, Louise finally spoke directly to Nightingale.

"You commoner! You should be honored that a noble is making you their familiar." She said as she strolled up, puffing up her chest – her very flat chest – and raised her wand. ""Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, bless this humble being, and make him my familiar!"

As she finished the chant, she leaned in for a kiss. She ended up kissing the finger that had been used to block her with. The crowd roared up in laughter again, while she glared at me in anger. I did not particularly care. I did not enter into any contracts without knowing what it was about.

"First, may name is not 'commoner' Ms. Louise Valliere. It is Nightingale. Second, what do you mean become your familiar. As I understand it a master-familiar relationship is a mutually agreed upon relationship between a mage and an animal, and NOT the result of a mage forcing themselves on someone."

"Here Zero, let me help you."

An ooze attempting to replicate the form of a human said, coming up close, before waving his wand. As Nightingale was lifted slightly off the air and rotated forward, the pink midget quickly took the opportunity to jump up and kiss him. He stared at her for a moment. And then the pain started.

As whatever telekinesis spell on him, he fell atop of the pink midget, essentially mounting her, their lips locked. There was a lot of "kyaaaaing", and laughing about how bold Zero was with a commoner in the background. He really didn't care. His hand was literally burning, a fire carving some rune into the skin. And he could feel the rune pushing on my **Mind Blank**, trying to get around his anti-enchantment defense. Attempted mind control tended to not make him a happy camper.

"Thank you for your help Mr. Grandple"

Professor Colbert said, as Nightingale got off his new 'master'. If he ever got around to feeling like calling her that. As far as he was aware, death of the master tended to end master-familiar relationships. Some of the ooze's friends were congratulating him on his "quick thinking", and calling him Malicorne. _Malicorne Grandple._

_A name I will have to remember_. Honestly, Nightingale was bad with names. Usually he needed a reason to bother remembering someone's name. Usually, it wasn't a friendly reason. Malicorne had made a grave mistake by allowing Nightingale to remember his name. After all, Nightingale may have been "good", but he was an adventurer. And adventurers never forgot. They never forgave. And they always had revenge.

Professor Colbert took a look at Nightingale's notes, and seemed to copy them down, before speaking up, letting Louise get up by herself. For some reason, she was glaring at Nightingale.

"Well, with that I believe everyone has completed the ritual. Class dismissed. Go spend the rest of the day getting to know your familiars!"

And then he waved his staff, and flew away. The rest of the students followed suit, either carrying their familiars, or casting the spells on their familiars as well if those were too big to carry. As this happened, Nightingale took a good look of the familiars. One dragon, one beholder, a salamander, a giant spider, a giant snake, a griffon, and a whole bunch of regular familiars. Well, and his glorious self. A few of the girls seemed to be looking at him with a blush on their faces as they flew away...

Well, it wasn't exactly accurate to say that the rest of the students followed. Just most, because there was one exception.

"Come on familiar. Follow."

Louise commanded, as she set off to walk to her room.

* * *

Nightingale did _not_ follow Louise. Instead, he grabbed her hand, and forced her to stop. She tried to keep going, but he had an iron grip, forcing her to turn and face him. She glared at him, wand raised.

"What do you want, familiar?"

She demanded.

"What I want, _Louise_, is answers. Answers to why I am here. To why you think I'm your servant. But currently, the answer to why we are the only ones that have to _walk_ back."

"How _dare_ you speak to a noble that way."

She shouted. Oh, she reminded him of so many nobles that thought their birth made them better than adventurers. How he hated those morons. Too prideful to understand efficiency.

"_WHY _are we not flying, _Louise?_"

Nightingale asked once more. The glare he gave her made her back down a moment.

"I can't cast that spell yet."

He sighed, and then pulled her in, throwing her under his arm. Louise became infuriated that a commoner, that her _familiar_ dare treat her this way. However, her sharp, witty retort died in her throat as the familiar seemed to disappear. As she tried to look around to find him, she realized that he was still holding her, and that she herself was invisible. And then they rose off the ground.

"Guide me to your window."

The bodiless voice commanded as she carried her around the tower. She had no choice but to go with his demands, directing him to her room.

* * *

"**Invisible Servant"**

Her familiar muttered once they reached her window. They had flown fast, though given how casual the flight once, she got the feeling her familiar could fly faster.

However, right now she was staring as her window seemed to magically open before her. And then she was thrown into the room, landing on her bed with an 'eep'. As she did, she noticed that she was no longer invisible. Her familiar was stepping into the room behind her, seemingly out of thin air, a pair of wings growing out of his back. And then the wings seemed to _morph_, being drawn back into his body and disappearing. The window casually closed behind him.

"What are you!"

She demanded. The glare he gave her made her swallow, as she realized something. He could use magic, meaning he was a noble. She had forced a noble to become her familiar! This could become a complete diplomatic disaster, assuming he didn't just take his indignation out on her.


	2. Preparation Requires Exposition

This chapter was pretty poor in my opinion. My tolerance for Louise's entitlement-induced up idiocy is too low to give it proper justice.

Also a good bit of the chapter is dedicated to explaining Halkegenia's magic system - as I see it at least.

Hopefully with that out of the way the next chapter can focus on actual events.

Any reviews on what I should change/do more of/do less of would be appreciated. I know my writing is bad, I just want to know how I can make it less bad.

* * *

"I believe. **Unseen Servant**. You mean. **Unseen Servant**. _Who_ I am, not _What_ I am. **Unseen Servant**."

Nightingale said as he calmly strolled through the room, using his ring to create Unseen Servants as he said the word. To Louise it would look like he was pointing at thin air and muttering. With his free hand, he pulled out a tea set from his handy-haversack. Louise stared at how the small bag was storing objects much larger than it. That something invisible seemed to hold the items didn't help.

"Now then, my name is Nightingale. **Unseen Servant**. I am a shepherd of the celestial planes." He pulled out a large, empty jug while explaining. "**Create Water**. I was _born_ human, I still have all my human parts slash reproductive capabilities, as well as intelligence, so I maintain my human rights. **Prestidigitation**. BTW, how do you like your tea?"

He cut off as he used another cantrip from his ring to make pure water taste like high quality tea. It would only last an hour, but that was plenty of time to enjoy the cup. Louise just blinked in confusion before giving her tastes. A moment later, an invisible force brought her her cup of water, that tasted like high quality tea.

"Now, the important question is who are _you_. _Why_ did you summon me, and why this you brand me with a rune that contains an _enchantment_ effect. I _really_ hate people using enchantments on me, so I suggest answering the question rather than acting indignant, or skirting around the question."

While he asked, his unseen servants pulled a chair over to him, and he sat down. He figured that between 5 servants, they should be able to serve him and Louise well.

"Enchantment? What do you mean enchantment? Like enchanting a sword?"

Nightingale's face met his palm. His considerable skills in reading other people told him that this girl was being serious. She genuinely was this much of an idiot. _Okay, so not a wizard. Since they use wands or staffs when casting, rather than praying, should be arcane casters. Also should be an arcane caster that doesn't get power by studying it. Sorcerer? Warlock? Warmage?_

"Enchantment, at least where I come from is a mind-altering spell. Basically brainwashing. I'm not sure what your rune is supposed to do, but it is doing its darn best to try and skirt around my defenses. Probably to make me like you more."

The girl just stared at him for a moment.

"I don't know anything about it. The familiar summoning is a sacred ritual that finds the creature most compatible with the mage to serve them for life."

She "explained" to him.

"Right, so you are an idiot. Child, do you honestly believe that a dragon, forcefully dragged away from its home would immediately serve the one that stole it away? Given how amicable all the familiars were with their mages, they were either drugged, or under some mind-altering spell."

And now both the girl's hair and face was pink.

"I am not an idiot. How DARE you talk to a noble like that when you are just a mere familiar." She seemed to latch on to the completely wrong thing. "I summoned you, and that makes you my master."

She yelled in her tantrum. _It isn't supposed to go like this. I was supposed to get a dragon, or a griffon, or a manticore, or something equally wonderful. Not this... this..._ She realized she wasn't entirely sure what Nightingale was. He cast magic like a mage, but he didn't speak like a noble. Nightingale on the other hand just sighed.

"So far you have kidnapped me. And then, with the assistance of your classmate, tried to enslave me. Your professor was not willing to leave until you had completed the ritual. Now I do not know what kind of barbaric country this is, but where I am from, those acts are highly illegal. I am in a VERY bad mood. So I will make you a deal. You do not try my patience, and I do not try my theory that your death will break our master-familiar bond."

The last sentence was said in a completely monotone voice. Louise just paled. A tear rolled down her face. And then she started crying.

Nightingale knew that what he had said was perfectly justified. But that was what logic said. Every instinct in his body was telling him to feel bad for making a 12 year old girl cry. _Sigh. This is going to be a long night. I can just tell._

* * *

It took a few minutes for Louise to stop crying. In that time, she went through a few more cups of tea, while Nightingale set about repairing the room. **Prestidigitation** cleaned up anything dirty. Like the entire laundry set. **Mending** fixed any dents or scratches, as well as the girl's book collection; she seemed to have a lot of those. Finally, the **Unseen Servants** went around folding up laundry, putting books away, and generally putting everything in its place. All in all, it took no time at all to clean up the room.

"So then, Louise Valliere, why don't you start your explanation at the very beginning. I have no idea where I am, so start there. You should probably cover stuff like why you summoned me specifically, what is expected in a master-familiar relationship, and move on to how to remove the brainwashing from this rune."

Louise quieted down a sob, wiped her eyes, and decided to start. She realized that this familiar wasn't normal. It wasn't right for the master to give in, but she felt that if they started another fight, she would cry again. She couldn't allow that to happen.

"You are currently in the Tristain Academy, Tristain's most prestigious magical academy. Today is the spring time familiar summoning day when all the second years summon their familiars. I did not try to summon you specifically; the ritual selects whomever is most appropriate for the caster of the ritual. As my familiar, you are expected to obey my orders, guard me, collect magical reagents for me, and generally assist me. In exchange you will be granted food, water, and a roof over your head."

Nightingale considered for a moment in terms of where to start. He had never heard of Tristain, but then he wasn't much for geography. Eh, geography and politics could wait.

"Lets see. For water, in case you didn't notice, I don't exactly have a problem with just making my own food supply. As for food," he pulled out a berry from a pouch on his side "this is a goodberry. Each of them is the equivalent of an entire meal. I can make 5 with the single casting of a level 1 spell. I can handle my own nourishment. I'm only interested in having food and water served to me if it tastes good."

He decided not to mention that after becoming an outsider he didn't need any food or water. That was best left unstated for now.

"As for a roof over my head, I have slept on forest floors in the rain before. Once again, I see anything you might provide as a luxury, and not a necessity. That said, I only see one bed here. So where exactly is my bed supposed to be? Unless there is some weird after-summoning ritual where master and familiar sleep together? Cause if so, sorry but I'm not into pre-teens."

Nightingale dodged the pillow that came flying at his face. An unseen servant picked it up, and took it back to the bed, while a casting of **Prestidigitation** cleaned it. Louise was blushing heavily.

"H-h-h-how can you say something so shameless! Of course we aren't sleeping together!"

She shouted in fury. Seeing that her familiar was simply sipping tea, ignoring her rage, she sat back down on the bed, trembling.

"Usually a familiar is an animal or a magical beast, so I prepared that pile of hay over there for you."

She said, pointing in a corner.

"Also, I'm not a pre-teen. I am seventeen years old!"

Nightingale barely refrained from spitting out his tea-tasting water.

"So a late bloomer. Or a no-bloomer. Anyways, that doesn't matter." He decided to dismiss the matter. They were getting off topic. "I will not be sleeping on a pile of hay. I expect to be treated with human dignity. That is non-negotiable. That said, I can see that you haven't really thought this over, so I will let you sleep on it. We can discuss the terms of the contract tomorrow. Hopefully you can think of something accounting for the fact that I'm a human."

Yeah, it wasn't necessarily a good idea to give her time to think of something better. He should just press what he had. But Nightingale was curious about where the hell he was. He wanted to read up on the customs and cultures here, as well as the magic they used. He could work from there.

"Also, do you have books on the history and culture of this place, as well as the magic system? I want to learn what I'm dealing with before tomorrow."

Louise nodded, and pointed out a few books before she started undressing. Nightingale was presented with a rather... well, sad, view until a skirt ended up covering his face. He threw it to the ground, and found himself assaulted by more articles of clothing that he dodged. _What. The. Hell._

"Take care of that laundry before tomorrow morning, and wake me up at dawn."

The girl said before she started to put on her nightgown. Nightingale was willing to bet that she did this out of reflex. Sadly, he took his course of action out of reflex as well. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, he strode over to her, and slapped the silly girl across the face. She stared at him in shock.

"Do _not_ make me put you in your place."

With that, he strolled over to the laundry, now collected and being folded by the unseen servants. A few mutterings of P**restidigitation** and it was all perfectly clean. Now, he just started going through the books she had pointed out, using **Prestidigitation** to make the pages glow. Louise stared for a bit more, then put on her nightgown, snapped to turn off the lights, and went to sleep.

Nightingale could hear sobbing as she slept. _It should make her stronger in the long run._

* * *

Louise had gone to sleep at around 8pm, based on Nightingale's dimensional clock, as well as the clock that measured of the position of the sun and the moons – he had adjusted both clocks once his night work had started.

It was now 4am, and Louise had acquired her daily necessity of 8 hours of rest. However, Nightingale had only read about the magic of this place. He still needed to finish his preparations for when dealing with it.

Apparently their magic system revolved around 5 elements: Earth! Fire! Air! Water! Void! By your powers combined... I AM BRIMIR!

Or more accurately 4 elements because in the past 6 millennium since Brimir's death a grand total of 0 people had succeeded in casting a single void spell. Despite the fact that he specifically chose 4 heirs to teach the element to. They somehow forgot all about it. Primitives.

Each spell's effect depended on the elements used. Its power, measured as dot, line, triangle, or square, was based on how many elements were used in it. The same element could be stacked multiple times, so someone could go fire,fire,fire,fire for ultimate burnination.

A mage's reserves seemed to be determined by their total willpower, or mana. They didn't prepare spells ahead of time, nor did they have a per-alloted amount of spells of each power level. Consequently they were a lot more flexible then sorcerers. It also seemed that it was possible for them to learn more spells than many sorcerers did. _Kinda like psionics I think... not too familiar with those guys._

All the fire element did was burn stuff. And all this culture figured out what to do with that, was to burn their enemies directly. There were a few creative uses it seemed, but very few mages had the "brilliance" to think of those. This would be trivial to defend against, so long as Nightingale only encountered the vast majority of fire mages that were complete idiots. So of course his first _important_ fight against a fire mage will be against the minority that had a brain.

The water element was quite a bit more flexible. It could be used to more or less create and manipulate minor constructs of water, that could be used as shields, or wield whips of water to hit and grab with. And then the element could be used to heal injuries, although apparently inferior to Nightingale's style of magic. At least at the higher levels. Apparently even just a dot class water major can heal a lot of injuries, and were considered very valuable, especially on the battle field.

It seemed that the best threat a water mage could pose to him would be to poison, suffocate, or tentacle grapple him. Once again, it was trivial to defend against the common approaches. Now, if someone created mist to blind him, or made the ground slippery to replicate a grease effect, or did a reverse healing on him, or...

The air element seemed to have a similar level of flexibility. It could create blasts of wind (gasp!), cyclones, or tornadoes as defenses. It could be used to levitate, fly, or broadcast a voice. Apparently it could also be used to boost the user's speed – similar to a haste spell, but a lot more powerful – however they would not be able to cast spells while under the effect. That would be tough to deal with, but manageable. Basically the element of mobility. _Terrifying in the hands of a tactician, laughable in the hands of someone doing a frontal attack... Hmmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here_.

Furthermore, it seemed that at the square level, lightning could be created from the air element. Which... honestly wasn't very impressive of a feat. Honestly, it seemed like they were trying to replicate a different element with this element. Completely inefficient. Also, lightning was, once again, trivial to defend against, since it seemed to suffer from the same problems as fire, except with less opportunity for experimentation for the creative minds. _I hope I can fight a lighting mage. Just to laugh at his puny square class spells._

Combining air and water to create ice/cold was common enough for it to get a special mention. This seemed to be able to do stuff like freezing things, making objects of ice, and firing icicles. Getting frozen in a block of ice was one thing he didn't have an immediate, one spell answer to just spilling off of his tongue.

Finally there was the earth element. And clearly the textbook was written by an _incredibly_ biased earth mage. Because this element was just plain all kinds of awesome. It could manipulate anything that was considered of the earth; metals, stone, the ground, soil, all of it could be shaped freely at will. And the levels of power! Apparently triangle class mages could generally make 20 mail – comparing other notes, it came out to around 16 meters, or over 50 feet – tall golems! Even an elder earth elemental, the greatest of the earth elementals clocked in at less than that. And it was a 9th level spell to summon them.

It wasn't necessarily that this element had more power than the others. By Nightingale's understanding, this place's magic system possessed more raw powerful than most of his place's tricks. If both Halkegenian system and _real_ magic could do something, odds are the Halkegenian version was more powerful. – About twice as powerful if done by a mage and wizard of similar levels actually – They just lacked flexibility, and his completely binary defenses. Problem with earth was, he didn't have any such binary defenses short of "not get hit".

And this element possessed insane flexibility! Even the spells seemed more like guidelines than strict formula. They did a general idea, but the mage could mold it as he willed. _How are these mages _not_ dominating the battlefield? Why the heck is the battle dominated by flame mages? Their top generals must be complete morons._

A rational person might take away from this to _not_ fight earth mages. The message Nightingale took away from this, was to find low level earth mages, and fight them to familiarize himself with the style and quickly figure out some counters. And then go on to the tougher levels.

Now apparently this entire style of magic was developed by this Brimir fellow 6 millennia ago. Plus an extra element. And in those 6 thousand years it was held as utterly sacred, and very few developments have been made to it.

And while this guy was busy single handedly inventing and contributing more to magic than the rest of humanity could since then, he also wiped out an army of demons that everyone else was powerless against. And then created four human nations that still exist today. And created around 90% of their culture that still exists today. And sired enough hairs to populate the royalty of each of those nations.

And taught magic to a large enough population for them to fill all the roles of loyalty and nobility. Even though magic is only passed down through blood. Meaning he would have had to use epic spells to reconfigure their genetic code before teaching them.

And spent his free time wtf-pwning the elves – a group that surprisingly isn't composed entirely of androgynous tree hugging hippies – a race of beings with power levels comparable to some of the strongest demons, and personalities supposedly – Nightingale found it very likely that this was propaganda – comparable to those demons. A race that, since then, humanity had only "won" one fight against during multiple wars, if losing forty thousand to defeat a group of two thousand could be considered winning.

Until he was eventually assassinated by a treacherous elf – though why an elf would be considered "treacherous" for killing someone actively engaged in genociding those elves is up for debate – at which point he decided to ascend to heaven, from where he would provide humanity with his blessings and holy guidance; especially when a noble was mistreating commoners, by forgiving the noble of said minor transgressions.

Given this track record, Nightingale wouldn't be surprised if Brimir had retroactively become a son of God, just for the hell of it. Hell, Nightingale wasn't even sure if genociding an entire race was something he had taken up as a hobby, or that was his idea of taking a vacation from building _all of civilization_ from scratch.

For some mysterious reason, this guy was worshiped along with God – singular and capitalized apparently – in this place. In fact, the churches and the religions were named after him, not the God in question. And insulting him was blasphemy, punishable by death. As was questioning any of his created systems, like, say, the right of a noble to "make use" of a commoner. _Wonder how many counts of heresy I can rack up on my stay here_.

Other than that, while slavery was _technically_ illegal, like any good mageocracy, the nobles could more or less do whatever they wanted to the magicless commoners. There had been a few revolts, but they were all quickly put down, and just further increased the confidence of the nobility.

It seemed that there were nobles who lost their titles, and so commoners with magic existed. However, these commoners had a chance to become nobles via notable accomplishments, or in service of their country. Commoners without magic on the other hand were fucked, and doomed to a life of being the playthings of the nobility.

_Unless someone introduces them to a system of magic that doesn't require inherent talent, just dedication to nature, or a cause/god that doesn't approve of a system that is essentially nepotism on crack combined with slavery by another name with a large sprinkling of divine right to fuck you over._

* * *

Having absolutely no plans what so ever for the complete and total destruction of "civilized society" as Halkegenia knew it, Nightingale made an **Unseen Servant**, turned invisible, and grew wings. He had the servant open the window, and close it once he had exited. Then he was off, flying towards the forest.

It wasn't that he needed to be out here. He could have done what he was about to do in Louise's room if he had felt so inclined. He just didn't want to be seen for now. That he had to spend one hour preparing spells _at a very specific time_ every day, was the number one weakness of his style of magic. Even the fact that he had to know ahead of time what spells he would need for the day wasn't as big of a weakness.

Usually divine casters choose some time like sundown, midnight, or sunrise for when they needed to prepare their spells. Nightingale had decided to pick 2 hours before sunrise. Because it seemed rather arbitrary at the time, and so that he wouldn't be interrupted at an inconvenient moment. After all, _everyone_ back home knew that divine spell casters prepared their spells at one of those 3 times. So if anyone was stalking an adventuring party, that would be the perfect time to strike. Just as the day-long buffs were wearing off, as the caster was exhausted, and before spells had been recovered.

So now he soared over the forest, trying to find a quiet secluded spot. After a minute or so of flying, he settled down on the ground, reinforcing the wild shape of an Astral Deva that he had assumed. Not that he looked like one though. He immediately changed back into his own shape, and canceled out the protective aura. Then, it was time to start praying.

Then again prayer wasn't exactly the right word. It was more like spending an hour giving the Celestial planes a list of precisely what spells he wanted access to today. And then spending the other 55 minutes just sitting there hands clasped together, waiting for his body to suddenly receive an influx of divine energy.

Once that was done, he got up and started dancing. It wasn't that he had enjoyed dancing. Rather, some time back he had heard of an idiotic group called the Spell Dancers, that could improve the power or duration of their spells by dancing a jig before casting the spells. Nightingale had joined this fabulous order, and now all of his buffs were on a 48 hour rotation.

Once that was done, he made himself invisible once again. Sadly, his invisibility had worn off during his meditation, but he couldn't recast it then. Oh well. Now that he was invisible again, it was time to head back and explore the castle.

Still, this was a rather strange country. There seemed to be some light blue bird flying in the sky that he couldn't identify. It was rare for him to not be able to identify birds. _Must be someone's familiar. Oh well._

* * *

**Number Crunching**

**Mechanics:**

Since this chapter spends a good bit of time going over them anyways, I figure this is a good place to write down how I see Halkegenian folk in terms of DnD 3.5 mechanics. The two are going to have to interact, and I would rather have it out in the open, so I can't backtrack as is convenient for me. Of course, I'm not going to figure out everything out now, just a few things, so I still have plenty of flexibility.

I'm mostly trying to figure these out so that Nightingale doesn't get to just curb-stomp everyone he meets. At least not without preparation.

_Spell Levels_: For comparing spell levels in case it comes up, I decided to put dot-level magic as between levels 1~3, line level as 4~5, triangle level as 6~7, and square level as 8~9. However, Halkegenia magic's power scales better with level, while dnd magic's versatility scales better with level.

_Raw Power:_ As far as I can tell, Halkegenia's magic system excels at blasting. I more or less see them as DnD evokers, except all of their spells are about twice as powerful as an equivalent DnD wizard's equivalent blasting spell. This way, even if they don't have the versatility of a _real_ mage, they are still very dangerous.

_Golems_: Fouquet's golem (30mail = 80 feet) was slightly taller than a Tarresque that stood up (50ft tall, 70ft long). I'm personally pegging her at the Square Class level, only when it comes to creating golems. Even so, that means a square class mage's golem ~= a CR 20 brute. I'm going to ignore the minor fact about how a rocket launcher took out the golem, because I disagree with ztn's author on how powerful those things are (though for the record I haven't done my research on this. So another reason is that I don't have enough knowledge to use that as a guideline). I'm roughly pegging a triangle class golem at equal to a CR 15 brute, line class as a CR 10 brute, and a dot class golem as a CR 5 brute. This, assuming that the spell creates only one golem. In Guiche's case for example, each individual golem would be less powerful since he makes 7 instead of just one.

_Toughness_: DnD characters are incredibly tough. Around level 20, characters with a decent constitution score can fall from orbit (20d6 damage), land in whatever position on whatever material that does the most damage (say, falling on your head onto rocky ground), and survive (max 120 damage, a fighter with 12 con has more than that), _without_ magic. In the novels I have seen no indication that Halkegenian folk are anywhere near this ridiculously tough. They consider a mild inconvenience like being hit in the face with an axe to be lethal! Consequently they aren't going to be nearly as tough as a DnD character would be.

* * *

**Units:**

Halkegenia uses different units from 3.5. Since I'm trying to stick mostly to ztn canon initially (summoning a druid instead of an idiotic commoner should have a very large impact on the setting very quickly), here are the conversions for ztn units that I'm using.

_Mail_: The ztn unit of length, the kind folk over at spacebattles estimated this out to be between 70cm and 80cm. I'm going with 80cm, or 2.66 feet.

_Libro_: The ztn unit for weight, I'm putting it at 10 pounds. The estimates from over at spacebattles would put it at around 11 to 13, but I'm using 10 because it is a nice round number.

_Currency_: For currency, ztn uses the Ecu and New Gold as gold coins. As I don't believe they use seigniorage, the value of these coins would depend on the amount of gold that is in them. Now, Volume 4, Chapter 5 mentions Saiton carrying 500 ecu coins (which, when you consider that a mansion is 2,000 ecu, sounds rather ridiculous to me. Imagine having a coin worth a few hundred thousand dollars...). A dnd gold coin weighs in at 1.6 US quarters. Assuming these 500 ecu coins have 3 times the length, width, and height of a US quarter (which would make them huge and inconvenient), they would weight about 16.875 times as much as a dnd gold coin, so if they are made out of pure gold, a dnd gold coin would be worth 30 ecu. Over all, I decided to slightly modify things so that 1 dnd gold coin = 10 ecu. 500 ecu coins will not exist.


	3. Meet The Girls

The "blue bird", of course turned out to be something completely different. If it wasn't plot significant, attention wouldn't have been called to it. Or potentially plot significant at least. The driving forces of _this_ universe weren't out to screw over adventurers. They just sometimes did so without bothering to notice.

In this case, the blue bird ended up being a sky blue dragon, flying over the forest a good distance away, with the back drop of a sky that was a similar color to the dragon. Now, the only way any of this would be significant would be if it was an intelligent dragon capable of speech with its master, and had noticed Nightingale. So of course this dragon was intelligent and capable of speech. It had also noticed Nightingale, or more specifically that Nightingale had appeared out of thin air, prayed for an hour, done some dancing ritual for around 10 minutes, and then disappeared.

The dragon wasn't _sure_ if Nightingale had disappeared. It was very much possible that this person had simply blended into the forest and left. Except the dragon couldn't spot anyone breaking the tree line and moving into the castle. So when dawn arrived, the dragon would go on to find its master, and tell its master about this mysterious ritual.

Who knew, maybe this strange person could be fun to dance with. Only having a master to communicate with was rather boring. The dragon wanted other play mates, even if it understood that it was dangerous...

* * *

Nightingale checked to make sure no one was looking when he flew into the castle before breaking his invisibility. He did it in a shadowy corner, because there were already a few servants about and working. An hour before sunrise. _Bloody hell!_

Well, on the bright side that gave him some time to get to know the workers. It _always_ helped to be on good terms with the help. They wouldn't poison your food, you could use them as a casual spy network, they tended to make for better conversation than nobles, and they weren't as prude. It also helped once you got started on a revolution for the common folk if the common folk were with you on it.

So for completely non-selfish reasons, Nightingale approached a dark haired maid with a nice body. She seemed to be resting, with a basket by her. The basket seemed big enough that two people should be carrying it. Given how tired she looked, it was probably heavy enough that two people should be carrying it.

"Hi, would you like some help with that?"

Nightingale asked as he walked up to her. She spun around surprised, then gasped, then blushed, then tried to say something, and then blushed again. _Oh right, the "become more beautiful than anyone spell". I forgot I still had that on._

"I... I can't. I wouldn't want you to get in trouble because you were late to your work because of me."

Nightingale blinked for a moment, and then looked down at himself. It was the outfit he had been summoned in – though perfectly clean of course – black pants held in by a black belt (magical), a simple long sleeve black shirt with the sleeves rolled up, nice shoes (magical) though ones that wouldn't look out of place in a bar, with a tanned skin, decent muscle mass, black gloves (magical), and well combed hair held there by a cheap looking headband (magical).

Okay yes, if the options were "stuck up noble brat" and "servant", he looked like a servant, or a butler. So long as one ignored the two magical rings he was wearing – though admittedly they had been specifically made to _look_ incredibly cheap – or the sack hanging on his waist. It probably didn't occur to the girl that he had been kidnapped. As far as Nightingale understood it, that generally only happened to young, pretty girls. _Hmmm, wonder if that is how she ended up working here... probably not polite to ask._

"Don't worry about it. I don't have anything to do for a bit longer."

Nightingale told her with his best smile.

"I don't wish to impose."

"You aren't. Just think of it as giving me the opportunity to talk to a beautiful lady."

_And put my foot in my mouth. And shove my entire leg down my throat for good measure._

The fact that she actually blushed at that horrible line told him that she wasn't used to being hit on all that much. Or at least not by people that looked beautiful enough to make the children to deities jealous. _Some say seduction is an art. I say it is the science of using magic to overload all of the senses until their brain shuts down, and the lamest of lines start working._

Nightingale quickly picked up the basket before he could say something else incredibly stupid. The girl was about to protest before she realized he was casually holding it in one hand, barely noticing the weight, and smiling. Or at least that is what he looked like. Inwardly he was a) marveling at how heavy a weight she had been carrying without magical assistance and b) considering having a "talk" with whomever was making her do manual labor like this. Where talk translated to doing until their spines what completing this task would have done to the maid's.

"My name is Nightingale. Would you be so kind as to lead the way Ms.-"

"It is Siesta"

She said as she started walking.

"Did you start here recently? I don't remember seeing you before Mr. Nightingale."

"Well, I was dragged here about 12 hours ago. Some kind of summoning ritual or another. Although I'm not sure if 'started' is technically the right term. Not sure how much free time I will have as a familiar to help out. But I can certainly help out whenever I'm free."

Siesta looked at him in shock. As if a rumor had materialized right before her eyes. Which, in hindsight, was probably _exactly_ what had happened.

"Eh, then you are... I heard about that. I didn't realize it was true. Though they are saying that the girl that summoned you actually just sneaked you in, and is paying you money to act as her familiar."

Nightingale blinked at that. Thankfully he kept moving though. _Why oh why on earth would they think that._

"Sadly no. If that were the case, I could just walk home. As things stand, well being sucked out of a bar through a magical portal tends to screw up your sense of direction." He was surprised how casual his own voice sounded. "That sad, do you know why people are saying that? I heard my quote master unquote get referred to as quote Louise the Zero unquote, but I'm not sure where that comes from."

Siesta shook her head. For some reason, it looked really inviting.

_No! Bad! Just because you have been too busy saving one town or another or helping someone else save a nation or helping a demigod, or the other heroics you have done to get laid for the past four years while you were forced to travel with a small group that contained only one girl who got action every night from her boyfriend, that you heard... Actually, never mind. Just go for it._

Nightingale could almost imagine his evil side and good side sitting on his shoulders, the good side opening up with a speech, stopping mid speech, and then leaving before the evil side got to say anything.

"I'm sorry but I just started working here recently, so I wouldn't know. Still, I get the feeling that you should not use that title in front of her."

_Okay, so here is how you are going to get some ass. First you are going to be nice to her. Make her feel comfortable around you. Then compliment her, buy her some flowers, and in general help her out. Make her feel confident, and become her pillar of support. Once you get there, then you can ask her out._

"Thank you for the advice. I have no intention of getting hurt over just a bit of curiosity."

_Um, just one question. Are you really my DARK side?_

_Hey, what were you expecting? You are so dedicated to the forces of good you have ascended from human form into a being of Celestia. You are, literally, composed of the good energies of the universe, and draw power from pure good._

"Well, here we are."

Siesta said as they arrived with the load in the kitchens.

_I'm an adventurer. I am good by ADVENTURER standards! Not REAL PEOPLE standards!_

_Hmmm, point taken. Fine then, find someone evil who's murdering would get her wet, slaughter them, and then be done with it._

_I hate myself..._

"Mind if I stay a bit longer to help out? I figure I only need to get back to the room by sun-rise, so I still have around half an hour free."

* * *

Nightingale ended up spending the time washing dishes while talking to Siesta and a few of the staff. Yes, he had a ring that would have let him handle most of the work in the kitchen while he had on a chair reading a book. However, he didn't want to reveal his magical abilities yet. The people seemed to distrust nobles, and the head chef outright hated them. _I wonder why_. They apparently also believed magic = noble.

Also, just because he had a ring that let him handle this with ease, didn't mean he wasn't able to wash dishes himself. So, after pocketing his gloves, he set about washing the dishes, and didn't leave the place until it was nearly sunrise. At that point with a quick apology, and a few final words, he headed off through the tower to his mistress's room. He had made sure to get directions to the 2nd year girls' dormitory – claiming he forgot how he came here – before heading off.

Now the only problem was to find the room that belonged to his master specifically. Hmmm, he could probably ask that blond brat with a rose for directions. Only problem was, he would have to grovel. And he _hated_ doing that. Also, wasn't that guy at the summoning ritual yesterday? Why was he sneaking out of a first year girl's room?

_I thought people at this age saw such a huge difference in a single year that they preferred to date only those of their same year. Maybe he can't get any elsewhere? Well, not like I'm one to talk..._

Though at least in Nightingale's case he had good justification. Or at least he thought so. _Gah! No more naughty thoughts! I have work to do_. And so putting on his business face he casually strolled towards the blond boy with a rose. Not wanting to speak too loudly and wake everyone up, Nightingale made sure to get close to his target before speaking quietly.

"Hello good sir. I was wondering if you could enlighten me about a dilemma that I am having."

Blondy, had apparently not heard him approach. _I did hear a wizard say that they don't get "spot" or "listen" as class skills. Whatever that means._ As such, he whirled around in surprise, and let out a loud yelp, upon seeing Nightingale grin.

See, adventurers did not normally smile. They had a grim job, which lead to a grim humor. In Nightingale's experience, there were two instances when an adventurer smiled. Either they were trying to get into someone else's pants, or they were feeling ecstatic about the loot they were going to find beyond the orgy of blood and death that they were about to bring upon whomever they were smiling at. Since Nightingale wasn't quite desperate enough to try to get into this boy's pants, he wasn't using his flirting smile.

Yes, Nightingale wasn't good at intimidating people. Sometimes though you got lucky and were a lot better at such tricks than you really should be. Other than that, this guy probably wasn't very powerful, heavily pushing circumstances in Nightingale's favor. Still, he wasn't trying to fight this 'noble', so he decided to make no reactions as to the frightful yelp. _Hmmm, since no one worships my "god", maybe I should start preparing **Divine Presence**. Might be fun..._

"I suppose it falls upon I, Guiche de Gamont to help those of inferior capacity."

Guiche said with a marvelous recovery.

"Sir Guiche, I wish to know the location of Master Louise's room."

_After this, I'm washing my mouth with soup. That or noble blood. Actually that sounds like a better option._

Guiche raised an eyebrow at him, evaluating him for a moment, until recognition dawned on him.

"Ah, you must be the commoner that Louise summoned as her familiar. What are you doing out here?"

"I spent a brief time helping in the kitchens. However, I forgot which was my master's room. I figure one as handsome and charming as yourself would surely be _intimately_ familiar with the room of _every_ lady?"

Guiche coughed at that. Nightingale bet that Guiche was probably familiar with only one or two rooms other than his own. However, he also doubted Guiche had the wit to come up with a proper response in the moment, other than showing the way. And he did. With an awkward laugh.

"Right you are, for I, Guiche de Gamont am a rose that blooms for all the ladies. There is no room that I do not bloom in."

He nearly shouted as they walked along. Nightingale did not feel like pointing out that the idiot had woken a few of the first years, who were peeking through their doors, including the one who's door Guiche was leaving. _It should take approximately 5 minutes after breakfast starts for EVERYONE to know that he is dating that first year if it isn't already public knowledge. Hope he isn't trying to enjoy any other pies._

He _also_ tried to avoid thinking of the rose metaphor. He was used to men likening themselves to objects that were long and hard, not soft and squishy like roses.

* * *

Under Guiche's "most charitable guidance" _and a lot of bragging_, Nightingale was guided to his "master's" bedroom. After which Guiche quietly slipped off into his own room. Apparently ladies did not understand that a flower bloomed for everyone, so he did not want his "most wonderful Monmorancy the Flagrance" seeing him here.

_So, cheating. I don't mind guys that two-time girls, or girls that two-time guys. But I LOATHE those idiots that do it in secret._

Well, it wasn't really his business. He couldn't possibly see how he could be blamed when tomorrow morning Guiche would be confronted by his girlfriend and whomever the girl he had been sleeping with was.

As Nightingale entered the room, he quietly closed the window, and created two **Unseen Servants**. He took out two magical rings from his Handy-Haversack, and gave each servant one of the rings. Then, he took out a book and started to read it. It appeared to be Louise's _intensive_ notes on the summoning ritual. Too bad all of it was utterly worthless to him.

He did learn though that most of the ritual wasn't handled by the mage. Rather, the ritual appeared to tap into some sort of power left here.

_Probably the result of something Brimir did, or at least would get attributed to his name if people were aware of it_.

After all, Nightingale could see no mention of tapping into this force. Rather, he was assuming its existence from the fact that the ritual seemed to be incredibly incomplete. As if there were a database of possible results somewhere that the magic was just accessing, and whatever they pulled out performed the results, while the mages here assumed that the spell accessing the database was actually creating the results.

_Well, nothing I can do about it._

* * *

As he was considering that, dawn finally arrived. It was time to wake this girl and continue their conversation from yesterday. Of course, Nightingale didn't do anything ridiculous like walk up to her and shake her awake. No, he had something much simpler.

"**Create Water"**

He muttered, and then went back to reading. As a gallon of water appeared in the air, one of the Unseen Servants used **Prestidigitation** from the ring it was carrying to chill the water, and then put the ring back in his Handy-Haversack. The water of course crashed down on Louise's face at a near-freezing temperature, shocking her awake. As she jolted up, the second servant used **Prestidigitation** to dry her before she was aware what was going on, and put that ring in the haversack as well.

"Morning. I was about to wake you, but I see you managed to do it on your own."

Nightingale said, glancing up from Louise's notes before continuing to read them. The two servants went about getting her clothes out and ready for her. Louise on the other hand, just stared in shock and confusion at him, blinking for a few seconds before opening her mouth.

"Who-"

"Spring Time Summoning Ritual. Explosion. Summoned me. Think you are my master. Got corrected. Any of that ring a bell?"

She first seemed to recognized him. And then flinched, probably recalling how he had slapped her. It lasted only a moment before she steeled herself, giving him a glare that would have impressed Liches. He just shrugged at that.

"How dare you talk to your master like that you d-d-dog!"

The glare he gave her made her stutter, but didn't make her stop. _At least she has guts, even if she is a bitch with an entitlement complex._

"I am Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere, a noble and the daughter of a duke! I will not be talked to that way by a mere commoner, much less a familiar."

_THUD!_

* * *

Nightingale smacked her notes shut, and threw it aside, letting it land on the table. He reached into his haversack, and pulled out a basket big enough to be wielded with two hands, that was covered in sharp spikes, and pointed it at her.

"My name is Nightingale, and not dog." He growled at her. "I come from a _civilized_ place where nobility is just a title, not a collection of rights. There are very few people whom I recognize as my equal, and you are _not_ one of them. Until you have _earned_ the right to do otherwise, you shall treat me as an equal."

"How _dare _you talk to a noble that-"

"Being shoved through a woman's orifice is not an accomplishment. _Everyone_ manages that. If that is the crowning achievement of your life, you have led a pretty pathetic existence until now. Now are you ready to talk like a civilized person to her equal?"

The girl just stared at him, her jaw opening and shutting quietly. She was_ not_ used to being spoken to in such a manner! Still, she nodded, and started dressing, at which Nightingale turned away, and sat back, putting away the basket. She was taught the rule of steel, to never bow and always command, but that training didn't prepare her for this. No matter how much she puffed up her chest, and how hardened her tone became it didn't help. She didn't have the strength to put him in his place.

_What would mother do? Probably beat him half to death, and whip him until he learned obedience. But I don't have that kind of strength. I'm just a Zero._

"Last night you said to not make you 'put me in my place'. What did you mean by that?"

That seemed like a good place to start the questions. She could learn about him, without asking anything hostile. Maybe find his weakness that she could exploit to assert herself over him.

"Whenever I first meet a mortal I consider them an equal. It doesn't matter if they are a noble or a servant, a king or a slave, everyone is my equal until they earn the right for me to see them as a superior. Sometimes an idiot is dissatisfied with this, and tries to exert their superiority over me. In those cases I hand down an ass-whopping until they grovel at me. From that point on, they are my inferior, until they redeem themselves into becoming my equal once more. I call that ass-whopping where I exert my superiority over them to be 'putting them in their place'. After all, self-important idiots do not deserve to be treated with respect."

Louise stared at that. If she had not stopped yesterday he would have made her grovel at her feet? Probably making her call him master too... She wanted to say that she was too proud to bend like that, but but the utter confidence and certainty that he spoke, she got the feeling that he was serious.

"And how does one earn the right to be your superior?"

"Simple. Either possess so much strength that I must accept their position over me, or impress me with their brilliance and capabilities. If you are going the strength route, keep in mind that being able to beat me in a fight isn't enough for that. Just because someone is smarter than me doesn't me I can't butcher them in their sleep."

Louise gulped at that. Still this wasn't all that bad. It was how her mother had earned respect as well. This was essentially a more primitive version of the rule of steel. It gnawed on her that she would have to _earn_ his respect as if being a noble wasn't enough already, but she could do it. She had been raised by Karin the Heavy Wind! She was a noble! Superiority was in her blood! She just had to show it to him. _But then I'm a Zero._

"Now that I have answered your question, it is my turn."

Nightingale said, turning around only a moment after she had finished dressing. As if he knew when she had finished, somehow. Say, by watching her. She blushed at that, but didn't say anything. He was _just a familiar_, and that meant he didn't count as human. It was already irritating enough that he wasn't dressing her.

In these thoughts, she didn't even notice that he was taking control of the conversation once again.

"What are your magical capabilities? I have read your books on how your magic system works, but I'm curious as to what your element is, and how many you can combine at once. I figure I should know that if I'm going to be sticking with you."

"What do you mean _your_ magic system? There is only one magic system! The magic from the founder Brimir."

"If that is what you want to think lets go with that. So your element and level?"

_How _dare_ a mere commoner talk to a- Oh. Right. He didn't think of himself as one._ God she found this frustrating. Not to mention she didn't dare tell him the truth. He might just laugh at her, and force her to be his familiar. He wouldn't do that, would he? That would just be too humiliating. Still, even if she lied, she would find out eventually. And question her about that. She had no choice but to tell her truth, but she ground her teeth as she did.

"I can't use any magic. All my spells end in explosions. People call me Louise the Zero because I have had Zero successes."

_One success if you count my kidnapping. Well, fuck. If I want to accomplish anything here, I need to stick to this noble, but she can't even do magic. And the only positive traits of nobles is their magic. FUCK!_

There was always the option of working on his own, but he wasn't quite ready to become a fugitive yet. Political systems were a lot easier to change while the entire nation wasn't hunting you.


	4. Not Gandalfr

This is going to be the last chapter today.

Tried to get a few chapters out since the story seems to be progressing pretty slowly per chapter.

Trying to figure out on how to cut down on the excessive detail to increase the ratio of events to words.

* * *

"Okay, ignoring the fact that magic is a prerequisite for nobility making a noble without a mage a paradox..."

Louise pouted at that, and blushed form anger, but didn't say anything.

"What are your plans for today? I assume you have classes and you need breakfast before that?"

Louise blinked, glanced out the window, and then immediately jumped up out of bed to get ready. She then realized that she hadn't taken a bath last night, and started fretting about that. At least until Nightingale used **Prestidigitation** to clean her, and then himself. And brush his teeth. And then brush her teeth. And fixed her hair. As well as his own. And had the Unseen Servants fix her bed, while she was putting on perfume.

Within a minute of her starting her fretting, he was done fixing the both of them up. He put his gloves back on, and followed her out the door, dismissing the two unseen servants. He manually closed the door, a quick explanation given to Louise that he didn't want to reveal his magic to others here... yet. That he still had to handle a few minor details first.

Waiting for them down the corridor was a large pair of boobs attached to a well developed female body with red hair. Nightingale remembered her for the summoning ritual. Sort of. Normally he would have felt bad about blatantly objectifying her, but seeing the 'human' boy next to her banished all thoughts from his mind. At least he thought it was a human. With the way he was following her, it might very well have been an incredibly well tamed dog familiar polymorphed into human form. About the only reason it wasn't wagging its tail at its mistress was because it lacked a tail.

"Hello Louise."

The pair of boobs said to Louise, only giving a glance at Nightingale. This was enough to make the girl's pet dog growl at him though.

"What do you want Zerbest?"

Louise responded, ignoring this woman's pet in much the same way. Nightingale merely shrugged at the kid, then thought for a moment, and blatantly ogled the pair of boobs plus the body. Neither girl noticed. The boy did, and growled harder. _Excellent._

"Didn't I tell you to kill me Kirche, Zero? I'm just wondering where you hired this commoner."

_I wonder if anyone will miss her if I kill her and dispose of the body. Probably no one will notice if I leave behind a blow up doll of her._

"I didn't hire him! I properly summoned him as part of the ritual!"

Louise yelled in anger.

"I'm not like you Kirche the Vulgar! I don't need to sell myself out to men just to feel validated."

Kirche merely raised an eyebrow, and flicked a hand, causing a large lizard to come forward. It looked like a lizard just short of two meters long. The creature opened its mouth, and released a small cone of fire into the air. Perhaps some sort of drake? Except it didn't seem to have some kind of serious scales. So this girl got a pseudo-drake as a familiar?

"This is Flame, a fire salamander, my familiar. A _real_ familiar."

She said as she petted the creature. Back in the Realms, a salamander of this size would be a regular salamander; too big to be a flame brother, too small to be a noble salamander. Now, summoning one of those would have been impressive... kind of. However, those creatures did not breathe fire, were intelligent enough to speak human language, and just being near them burned you. Which meant, that this creature wasn't a _real_ salamander.

Louise seemed to look at Kirche's eyes with a hint of jealousy for a moment. However, at the phrase "real familiar" she glanced at Nightingale, and then smiled, as if realizing something. Like the fact, for example, that he could probably curb stomp all of the familiars of the second years. At the same time. Except maybe the dragon. Kirche seemed to catch the smile, but not its meaning.

"You seemed mesmerized by the creature commoner. Perhaps you have finally realized what hole you have dug for yourself? I don't know what the Valliere girl is paying you, but I suggest you return the payment and run for it now. The doings of the nobility aren't a game some mere commoner can survive in."

The love-stuck puppy spoke. His tone dripped with an insult. As if he was trying to provoke Nightingale. _Actually, that is probably exactly what they are doing._ He don't know why these children were mad at him, but found this suicidal tendency amusing. _Maybe I can use this._

"I thank you for your kind words my lord. I am called Nightingale, although regretfully I do not believe I know your name. May I be given the honor of hearing it?"

Nightingale asked with a bow, getting a half-surprised, half-horrified look from Louise. He didn't blame her. The person who was supposed to be her familiar wouldn't give her the respect she thought she deserved and treated her like crap, but was acting so humble in front of what was apparently an enemy at school.

"I'm Pelisson de Marlotte, the Rapid Stream. And this lady here is-"

"Kirche Zerbest, the Ardent. Unlike your master I'm a master of both magic and passion. You should remember the Zerbests. It is because we allow our bodies to burn with passion that we always get what we want. And it is because of that that the Valliere have always had to lick up the bones after our victories for the last two centuries."

_A family rivalry? Is that all this is about? So primitive._

"What, how dare you! The Zerbests are nothing but lowly thieves. How dare you insult the Valliere name!"

Louise screamed, which only made Kirche smile.

_Hmmm, no way in hell I can pull off damage control now. In which case I might as well just hammer down on this rift between them._

"I appreciate the advice Pelissy, but I guess I will have to decline running away."

Nightingale said with a calm smile as he grabbed the little pink girl's hand to pull her away from here.

"However, as repayment for your advice, let me give you my own. You are still clueless children, who know nothing of the realities of this world. Snuggle up in your little holes, and keep your heads down, lest someone of actual power crushes you in the middle of a minor errand."

Saying that, he walked by them, dragging Louise along. He only got a dozen steps before Kirche started to say something, so he turned around and cut her off.

"Oh, and Kirche, might I suggest telling your boy toy not to take his runic name quite so literally? It creates a lot of extra work for the staff that have to wash his pants."

While the three nobles looked in confusion at Pelisson's pants, only to quickly notice a wet stain there, Nightingale turned again, and then started pulling Louise along. Pissing off nobles was fine and all, but he wanted breakfast damn it!

* * *

Once they arrived at the dining hall, Louise informed Nightingale that he wasn't permitted inside. The dining hall was for nobles, and commoners usually had to stay out. She could ask a teacher for permission, but it would take some time. Shrugging, Nightingale had told her to just get the permission by tomorrow, and headed for the kitchen. Louise told him – rather loudly – to wait with the other familiars, so with another shrug, he agreed to that. It wasn't yet time to publicly disobey her orders.

As he strolled into the clearing, he looked around and found a few of the staff trying to feed the familiars. From what he could tell, the familiars got decently sized meals. That said, the staff also seemed to be busy trying to figure out what kind of food each familiar was interested in eating. _So I'm allowed to choose what I eat? And get personally fed by some maids as they rub my tummy? Doesn't sound too bad._

"Hey, Ms. Lola, do you mind if I help you with that?"

Nightingale asked, walking up to a blond maid. From what he remembered, this girl was Siesta's room mate. She currently seemed to be trying to feed a dog and a cat that were snuggled up against each other, but both were refusing the food. The mouse and owl that were resting together right next to the pair weren't liking their meal any better. In fact, as much as they got along with each other, they all seemed to be hissing/growling/squeaking/hooting at the staff members. Lola seemed worried at that.

_Poor girl. Probably worried she will be held responsible by the nobles for the preferences of their familiars._

"Eh, Mr. Nightingale, why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your master?"

"She told me that since I'm a familiar, I should wait with the familiars."

He said with a smile, kneeling down next to the familiars, and started to pet the four. He wasn't all that good at handling animals _for a druid_, having focusing more on the "bending the cosmical forces of natural to his way" aspect of it, but that still meant he had special skills with this. And it was showing. The animals didn't seem to be happy with him yet, but they were willing to let him pet them.

"Eh, then you haven't eaten yet?"

"No, but let me help you with these four first."

"I would be grateful for the help, but I'm afraid they aren't willing to eat anything."

"Just give me a moment. Animals tend to be more likely to let you bribe them with food if they already like you to some degree. Some idiots back home call it an art, but I always think of it a bit differently. I see it more as **Speak**ing **with** the **Animals** much like how you would speak with a human. They respond better to you once they likely you and see that you are treating them as an equal."

By the time he had gotten this fair, the animals didn't seem angry anymore. They seemed to be trying to snuggle up to him.

"So, what would you like to eat little ones?"

Of course, they only let out a mew, bark, squeak, or hoot. Even if they sounded happier, to Lola they still didn't make any sense. And yet Nightingale immediately started saying what each one wanted. And as she put down the foods – in some strange combinations – the animals immediately went to those.

"How did you know that?"

"I got lucky. Sometimes I can intuitively tell what an animal is saying. Other times though, I don't have the slightest idea. It is a gamble, but when my intuition says something, it is usually correct."

"And what does your intuition tell you about what I'm thinking?"

"That I'm obviously crazy, but I might be able to make your job easier if you just put up with my crazier for a few more minutes? I'm not too sure. Humans are a lot more complicated, so I can only guess."

He said with a smile and a shrug as he got up.

"I would have guessed you were thinking of the stereotype that good looking people are idiots, but you seem like a pretty strong counter-evidence for that. So, would you like me to help you with the other pets?"

She nodded, confused, and then started leading him to the next animals. It wasn't until they had left the first four animals behind that she understood what his poorly worded compliment had been trying to say.

* * *

With the help of his druidic animal taming abilities, as well as the ability to speak with the animals, it didn't take too long to figure out the favorite meals of every animal in the courtyard, and have it recorded. That still left a few of the magical beasts though. The first of those he strolled up to, was the griffon.

_Wait, don't they have griffon knights as a _military division _here? You would think the meals of those griffons would be well known to avoid situations like these. Oh well._

Sadly, his druidic abilities and level 1 spell did not work on magical beasts. Though the spell was about to run dry in a few more seconds animals. So he would need to do this the old fashioned way. Damn, and the creature looked hostile too.

_No wonder the staff isn't approaching it. I can get away with injuring it, since there is no rule against fights between familiars. The master of whomever attacks first would be punished at most. With them, even if they didn't fight back, they might get in trouble for giving it a taste for blood. This would be so much easier if I could use obvious magic._

Still, he had to try. So he placed his right hand on the griffon. Suddenly he felt a tingling sensation on the back of his right hand, he could feel exactly what the creature was feeling, and it calmed down. Then it was rubbing its head against his chest, and asking to be scratched. So he scratched it.

_Wut?_

Still, he took off his right glove to continue rubbing the creature, and noticed that the rune on it was glowing very slightly. Barely at all really. That was where the tingling sensation was coming from.

_Windalfr, high one who uses magic. Wonder what that means. Probably why this creature is so obedient._

The fact that his familiar runes held the words "who uses magic" in them wasn't sufficient to tip people off that he knew magic, honestly didn't surprise him. These people were incredibly ignorant. Hell, he wasn't sure they could read these runes. It seemed different from their usual language.

_Which is why you put **Comprehend Languages** on a ring. So you can read any book or pamphlet you might ever come across._

Well, he was getting off topic. What mattered was that a few soothing questions into the creature's ears later, it pointed out what foods it was interested in. And then Nightingale moved on to the floating eye-ball, making sure to have his glove back on. _How the hell does it eat._

By the time he was done, the servants brought him some bread that he started munching away on. He would have liked to eat with them, but a salamander was lying in his lap, pinning him against the griffon that was happily purring, and making him use it as a back rest. There was an owl on his shoulder, a mouse on his head along with a frog, a cat on his other shoulder, a giant snake was wrapped around them all, a dog and a cat had forced the salamander to make space for them in his lap, and other animals were on him or surrounding him.

_You know, this wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't so damn hungry._

As things stood though, he was trying to finish his meal as fast as he could. He couldn't know when his master would be arriving here.

* * *

Not too long after Nightingale finished his meal, a stream of second years came pouring out of the dining hall, looking for their pets. By this time, there wasn't a single staff member around. As if they were all aware of how dangerous it would be to be seen by nobles before something else was already occupying their attention.

_Especially_ given the massive shock that all of them got upon exiting. They had expected to see the animals spread around the courtyard, enjoying themselves in pairs or triplets at most. Instead, there was one single pile of animals, in the center of which were a young dragon and a griffon forming a circle, wrapped around by a huge snake. A large eyeball was floating atop, and a salamander was in the middle, mounting a "human commoner". This unusual combination was surrounded by the rest of the animals, many of whom were perched on larger creatures.

The students, naturally got upset. Or at least a lot of them did, and they started yelling at their familiars to come over. After a short bit, the familiars obeyed their masters, for some reason seeming unhappy to leave Nightingale's side.

_The ability of these runes didn't activate until I was petting the griffon. Meaning there is some way to activate them. There must be some way to deactivate them as well. Hopefully._

As he was contemplating this, the griffon grabbed him by the back of the neck of his clothes. He didn't bother resisting, as he was dragged to the griffon's master, a light brown haired girl who had a rather indignant look. This seemed to be shared by every noble as they tried to make their familiars feel guilty, and failed.

In her indignation, the girl appeared to miss a sky blue dragon sneaking up behind her. The dragon was carrying a short student – possibly the shortest Nightingale had seen so far – with matching blue hair and a large staff that was reading a book. As the dargon got behind her, it lay down, gently placing the little kid against itself. The kid never stopped reading.

At this point, the brunette finally noticed the dragon and turned around, completely missing the griffon's motion as it pushed her down, making her sit with an indignant 'eep' sound, her back resting against the dragon. The griffon then tossed Nightingale in between the two girls, and before any of the three could respond, gently lay down on their laps, and started purring. So did the dragon.

The two of them seemed to have somehow coordinated this action – in the few seconds since their masters showed up – to be able to sleep with both their masters and Nightingale. Now they were forming a happy circle around the three. The only human there not looking confused was the blue haired child, who was still reading a book.

"What the hell did you do?"

An indignant, and somewhat upset brunette demanded of him.

"Sora is purring. _Purring!_ Griffons do not purr! It is physically impossible!"

She might have a point at that. Which made all of this even more impressively weird.

"Uh, I was helping the staff feed the other familiars, and then they took a liking to me. And then Sora kidnapped – er, familiar napped – me, and dumped me down here."

Nightingale relayed the truth, and nothing but the truth.

"That doesn't mean anything! Tabitha, you say something as well!"

"Fine"

The blue-haired girl – Tabitha – responded simply. Nightingale took her to mean that the situation was fine, rather than "fine, I will say something". Apparently not a girl for many words.

"What Tabitha means is that Sylphid is fine with it, so it is fine with her. You should also trust your familiar more Joanna."

Kirche said as she came up to them. Her point might have sounded better if she didn't have to be eyeing Flame to stop it from leaping atop the three some.

"You know, you really hired an interesting commoner Louise. He seems better at taming other people's familiars than most people are at taming their own. If you aren't careful, he might end up taming you."

Kirche said with a smile, and a small chuckle. Nightingale noticed Louise had come along as well, and was glowing in rage at that comment. Or perhaps the general situation.

"That won't happen Zerbest. I'm his master, and I will have him serving me in no time."

Joanna blushed at that, and Kirche raised an eyebrow, muttering 'my, oh my'. It took a few seconds for Louise to realize just what she had said. Then she started blushing, and pulled out her wand, as if ready to strike someone.

"Well, don't worry. Once the two of you have worked out dominance with one another, I will be sure to steal him away. It is tradition after all."

_Wonder that is about._

"Um, Ms. Joanna, what are those two arguing about?"

The girl was so confused at this point, she just automatically answers.

"The Zerbest family has a tradition of stealing away the lovers and fiance of the Valliere. Since they are neighbors, but the Zerbest are Germanian, that creates a bit of rivalry."

_Ah, that makes sense. Though if their families are anything like these two, that tradition can't be all that hard to maintain._

"Hey, familiar, stop talking to that girl, and get out here right now. If you don't get out this instant, you are not getting any food for a week."

It was rather surprising how much willpower it took Nightingale to not get out there, and start strangling her for that comment. _Man, I should not be _this_ irritable. Wonder what is wrong._

"Sorry master, but I can't get out from under this griffon."

Which was a straight up lie. He had **Freedom of Movement** on. He could slide out whenever he felt like it. But for now, that needed to be a secret.

"Also, don't you all have classes to attend?"

"Today is a free day to get to know our familiars. Joanna, tell your pet creature to get off my familiar."

"Don't order me around Zero!"

"My my Louise, getting jealous?"

Nightingale turned to Tabitha as the three girls started arguing. It looked like this would take a while.

"Hey, do you have another book that I could read?"

She nodded, and wordlessly gave him a second book she had on her.

"Thank you."

With that, he tuned out the voices of the other three girls, and joined Tabitha in reading what appeared to be a novel titled _"The Hero of Ivaldi"_

* * *

There were two alterations to canon in this chapter as far as I'm aware.

First was making Nightingale into Windalfr instead of Gandalfr. That was done after I realized that making him Gandalfr would cover up one of his main weaknesses. Also, it fits better thematically with a Druid.

The translation for Windalfr is a guess. Gandalfr is translated as "lowly one who uses magic" by Brimir. My guess is that dalfr corresponds to "uses magic", and Gan is "lowly one". Based on that, I guessed Win to be "high one". It might be that dalfr means "lowly one" instead, I don't know.

The second was Joanna. She is a made up character. I'm not sure if a griffon familiar appeared in canon, but that is an alteration to canon in Chapter one. Since I needed a name for her, I more or less just made up one.

Pelisson on the other hand is the actual name of one of Kirche's suitors. He ends up taking her to a ball on their first year. However, as far as I know his family name, runic name, and element are never stated, so I made those up.


	5. Stacking the Decks

Nightingale didn't get too far into his reading before Joanna found herself unable to keep up with the argument. She did tease Louise yes, but she wasn't interested in a long drawn out argument like what the Valliere was having with the Zerbst. In fact, were it not for her misbehaving familiar, she would have left long ago.

"I guess we haven't had a proper introduction. I'm Nightingale, summoned here by Louise Valliere, and she is currently trying to make me act as her familiar."

"Joanna de Arcadia, the Swallow."

The girl answered, too confused to realize Nightingale was taking a casual tone with her. That was good. If he just kept this up, she might get used to talking to him like this.

"Please to meet you Joanna. Sorry about your familiar's behavior."

"Do you know why Sora would behave like this?"

"Eh, if I had to guess, probably has something to do with this seal."

He said, taking off his glove, and showing his summoning rune.

"Started glowing slightly as soon as I started petting Sora, and five minutes later I was getting cuddled by every familiar here. Sadly, it didn't come with a manual, so I don't know how to turn it off."

"So who else knows about this?"

"So far? I have only told you. I only found out about it not too long ago."

She pulled his hand over a bit, and examined it. As she did, Nightingale noticed that Tabitha seemed to be listening as well. _So that makes two others who know so far. Well, Professor Colbert was also copying it down..._

"What does it say?"

"Windalfr. No idea of its significant, but that is what it says."

"Eh, you can read it."

"Kind of. I have a secret that lets me read a text in any language."

Tabitha pretty blatantly failed to hide the fact that she was listening now.

"What kind of secret?"

Joanna asked, blatantly curious about it.

"Eh, I would rather not talk about it yet. Some secrets can only be revealed at the right time to the right people." _Why did Tabitha start nodding to that before stopping?_ "If you want I can promise that you will be the first one I tell."

The girl pouted for a moment, but then agreed to it. She really didn't look like a noble talking to a commoner right now.

"So why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? For you to summon a griffon, you must be a brilliant mage."

And so, while Louise and Kirche managed to argue with each other for the next 30 minutes over utterly trivial, inconsequential crap, Nightingale chatted up Joanna. Most of the stuff he learned was trivial. However, they did end up speaking casually to one another. And they sometimes even managed to get a word or two of response out of Tabitha when asking her some questions.

* * *

As Nightingale was chatting with Joanna, suddenly his hair stood up on the back of his neck. Every instinct in his body was telling him that it was dangerous. Apparently Tabitha and the two familiars had the same instincts; all four of them moved at once.

Nightingale turned, grabbing Joanna just as Sora got off of them, and flew off. Sylphid was getting off the ground at the same moment, and took off, rush as Nightingale rushed by under the dragon. Tabitha seemed to have gotten atop of Sylphid in time to get away.

Nightingale proceeded to demonstrate what happened when you used magic to boost the ever loving crap out of your physical stats. He barely even noticed Joanna's weight as he sprinted off, tapping out a pace that could have won him an Olympic gold medal.

He barely managed to get away as a god damn explosion went off right behind him, the blast missing him by mere inches. Had they been just a moment slower, they would have been caught up in it.

"What the hell was that?"

Joanna asked as Sora landed by them, and she got unceremoniously dumped on it.

"Louise."

That was his only response, as he put down Tabitha's book, turned around, and strolled back towards the crater left by the explosion. The blast seemed to have carved a 10 feet wide, 3 feet deep hole in the ground, centered on Kirche. Louise was standing just outside the crater. Somehow neither girl was hurt. Yes, Louise had _failed to blow up Kirche with an explosion centered on her_.

_I knew she was a Zero, but this is a new level of fail._

And now the two girls were pointing wands at each other. Apparently letting them argue for half an hour while giving Louise an incentive to not leave had been a mistake. Pelisson was there as well now, seemingly ready to heroically back up his girlfriend.

Okay, it would have been heroic had he not looked like he was in complete rags. Somehow, he hadn't avoided the full effects of the explosion, and he was barely standing. His wand seemed to be missing too.

"Will you two ladies please put your wands away? This is no place for a duel."

Nightingale asked as he calmly strolled – nearly as fast as these children could spring – in between the two of them. _Arrived at ground zero: check. Figured out a way to stop this fight: not check. Damn it._

"Fireball!"

Kirche yelled in response, making Nightingale duck, and pull Louise aside with him as he did. A head-size sphere of fire roared past them, and struck the ground amidst the crowd that had gathered to watch the event.

"Will you two ladies please put your wands away? This is no place for a duel."

He sounded like a broken record. Oh well. While grabbing her, he had disarmed Louise of her wand. If it came to it, he could just disarm Kirche as well.

"Back off _commoner_. This has nothing to do with you."

Pelisson hissed. On the outside, Nightingale smiled. On the inside though, he was sweating. _Oh shit. This was not how I was going to fight him. I had some things to set up still. Right, calm down. I can still salvage this._ All he had to do, was stop anymore spells from being flung, while maintaining a tense atmosphere. _Yeah, I'm fucked._

"I'm sorry boy. But apparently I'm Louise's familiar. And from what I'm told, that involves protecting her when she is in trouble. By the holy ritual designed by Brimir himself. Are you questioning the words of the founder? Isn't that heresy?"

Not that he himself believed on gave two copper pieces about this Brimir fellow. But apparently people around here considered heresy a big deal. Enough for an accusation to upset you, but retain enough sense not to risk being branded as one.

"Flame, I would prefer not to fight with your master. Could you restrain her boyfriend by getting very friendly with him?"

Yeah, he also had a broken-ass familiar rune to work with. Before Pelisson could figure out what was going on, Flame had jumped on him from behind, tackling him to the ground, and started – rubbing would be putting it politely – the boy's leg.

"And with this, I bid you farewell, Ms. Zerbest. "

Nightingale said, and quickly dragged Louise into the ground, while Kirche was distracted looking at her familiar. By the time she glanced up, Nightingale had acquired meat shields, and she couldn't attack them. So she set about taming her familiar.

_Well, that gives me an idea of uses for this rune. Now, if only I could come across a Great Wyrm to tame..._

* * *

"What the hell are you doing!?"

Louise finally yelled once they were in the castle's hallways.

"Taking you to the stables. It isn't even 10am yet, and you already blew up the courtyard. At this rate, we won't be able to get to know each other if he stay on the school ground."

As to how he knew where the stables were? He could guess based on where the staff were taking horse food when taking care of the familiars.

"I need to buy a few things, like extra sets of clothing anyways. You know, since you kidnapped me with only the clothes on my back. Unless you want me to stroll around naked?"

She blushed at that, but kept her voice down. She was fuming at something, but he wasn't concerned with that. Up ahead were a group of students that hadn't been at ground zero. They were discussing himself.

In the middle of the group was a blond, sir Guiche, being confronted by a blond girl. _Probably his girlfriend?_ He considered it for a moment, before heading straight for the group, ready to meddle. _Sorry blondy, but I'm short on time. You get to be my sacrifice._

"I know you were in that trollop's room last night! Admit it Guiche, you were cheating on m!"

"Montmorancy, my love, I could never tell a lie to your eye."

The boy seemed to be trying to defend himself, despite the girl's onslaught.

"Ah, sir Guiche. I'm most thankful that you helped me find my way last night."

The boy with the rose seemed to turn pale as Nightingale walked up, while Montmorancy – apparently that was the girl's name – pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"I knew it Guiche! The rumors were true!"

"Montmorancy..."

"I'm sorry miss, while I can't attest to the accuracy of the rumors, I can attest to the accuracy of the actions that spawned them."

Guiche seemed to turn read at this, so it was time to go on before he could get a word out.

"Or more accurately, to the fact that those actions were nothing like what the rumors have portrayed them as. These rumors are the result of people substituting wild fantasies to make up for their ignorance of what actually happened."

"Eh?"

Both blonds looked thoroughly confused now. Guiche, probably just didn't have the slightest clue what Nightingale was pulling.

"Last night, I had left my room to explore the castle, and upon trying to return to my room, I had realized I didn't know the way back. I stumbled upon your boyfriend by the flower garden, and decided to ask him for directions."

No one was saying anything now. Even Louise had stopped her grumbling to listen to Nightingale pull a tale out of his rear and do his best to spin it into reality. Well, Montmorancy did speak up though.

"The flower garden? Not the first year dormitory?"

Nightingale shook his head.

"No miss, the flower garden. He was mumbling something about not being to find a bouquet of flowers that could match his love's beauty."

The girl blushed at that. _Okay, so she is actually believing this load of crap. Wow, naïve as hell, ain't she?_

"I asked him if he could give me directions back to my master's dorm, and he said that he was returning to his dorm anyways, so he would just show me the way there. He seemed to be ashamed of being unable to find flowers worthy of his love, and I was ashamed of losing my way back, so we both agreed to not talk about that event."

Okay, now he just needed to explain Guiche's loud outburst in the first year girls' dormitory.

"As we were traveling through the dorms, I believe I may have teased sir Guiche slightly too much, causing him to make a loud outburst asserting his dominance as a response. I believe that outburst may have been the cause of these rumors, rather than any facts? I'm terribly sorry for any confusion my request of assistance from Sir Guiche may have caused."

And with that Nightingale bowed his head slightly Not that Montmorancy noticed. She was too busy blushing and hugging her boyfriend. _She looks so easy to manipulate. Way too clingy. No wonder even Guiche can get away with cheating on her._

"_I owe you"_

Guiche seemed to mouth those words, before patting his girlfriend's head, and whispering something into her ears. Nightingale smiled. Now he just needed to get Guiche off alone, to tell him how to pay off that debt of his.

It would be around half an hour more of pointless chattering before Nightingale got Guiche off alone for a few minutes to explain what he wanted in exchange. Initially the kid protested, arguing that commoners could never beat mages in a fight, but relented when Nightingale pointed out that whether he won or lost was Nightingale's business, and Guiche wouldn't be at fault. After that, it wasn't much harder to get Guiche to help set things up so that the duel would look like something spontaneous, agreed to while heads were hot.

_Excellent. I have a duel tomorrow morning. Now I just need a little cooperation from Louise for everything to be ready._

He thought as the two of them returned to the group, and then Nightingale and Louise left to go off and shop for stuff.

* * *

The first stop that Louise and Nightingale made was at a bank that performed conversion of gold into Halkegenian coins called Ecu.

Louise initially wasn't sure why they were coming here. Nightingale may have been able to use magic, but he was still a commoner. He couldn't have had that much money. She complained right until Nightingale placed a pure gold coin on the table. And then another. And another. And kept putting them down by the handful.

By the time they exited the shop with Nightingale's Handy-Haversack full of 2,000 ecu, Louise was just too shocked to utter a word. _That had only cost me 200 gold coins. Apparently that was enough to buy a mansion too._

"So master, do you have a clothes shop in mind? Somewhere that sells clothing worthy of your partner? My only restriction is that it not be an outfit that I have trouble moving in."

The girl pouted a bit at that, but decided not to throw a tantrum for now. She had kicked him a few times on the way here, and discovered that when he allowed her to land her hits they did absolutely nothing. She couldn't discipline him with her wand, because he hadn't returned that yet. She had no choice but to put up with his attitude for now, or look like a child in public.

"This way."

After getting clothes for Nightingale – a number of sets similar to what he currently had, just of slightly bluer color, and fancier material – they ate at a fancy restaurant. After that, Louise wanted some reagents, so they picked those up, before finally heading back, having spent only a mere 500 ecu during this trip.

During the time, he learned a lot about Louise, but made sure to keep the topic from covering him. He was the main character. All reveals and flashbacks must be done sufficiently dramatically. He figured he could reveal one part of his past after every note worthy action. Of course, knowing his luck, that is precisely how things would _not_ end up happening.

Louise was apparently the third and youngest child of the Valliere family, a long line of dukes and duchesses, that were currently the second most powerful family in Tristain. The first, being the royal family. They were also one of the top five richest in Tristain, and were in the top twenty in terms of both wealth and political power in all of Halkegenia.

_Wow, no wonder she feels she is entitled to everything. She is a princess in all but name._

She believed that magic made nobles superior to commoners in all aspects, and hence it was their divine right to rule. Apparently the concept that magical talented doesn't affect one's ability to work with numbers when juggling taxes and writing laws never occurred to her.

From an early age, her mother taught her the "rule of steel", that rule was maintained by order and discipline. It was a way of life, that Louise blatantly failed at given how disobedient her familiar was. Somehow she managed to speak the phrase "earn the right of rule through strength, and obedience through benevolence" without cracking up. Maybe the irony of her saying it was missed on her?

Apparently she was raised under this rule of steel, though never respected by her family because of her lack of magical talent. Only her sister, Cattleya acknowledge Louise. Seeing that she was hopeless at magic, her family had been grooming her instead for her wifely duties, teaching her how to run a household, and hold the proper social etiquette.

She had a fiance – a Viscount Wardes that was a decade her senior – that she had been engaged to for 10 years now. He was the only one near their social status that had shown an interest in her. Nightingale had nearly picked up a cup of water, just so he could sit it and then spit it out when he heard this. She was engaged to someone that showed an interest in her when she was 6, and he was 16. He called her beautiful and "his little Louise". Apparently he was a mage knight, and captain of the Griffon Knights, which was totally a big deal.

_Parent sanctioned pedophilia? With normal families if a man like him showed an interest in their 6 year old daughter, they would ask adventurers to kill the perverted bastard._

She had two siblings, both of them female. Her elder sister, Elanora, Louise didn't want to talk about. Her middle sister, Cattleya, was a nice, charming, and beautiful woman apparently. And Louise's favorite family member. The sad way the girl looked, Nightingale was sure there was more to the story, but the girl wasn't willing to elaborate., and he didn't have a reason to press the issue. Not like she was suffering from a life long illness beyond the capabilities of their mages that he could heal with a day's preparation.

* * *

After they returned, Nightingale went off to help the staff with various trivial tasks, while Louise went and did girlish things. Like taking a bath, having dinner, and studying. It wasn't until night and Nightingale had time to talk to Louise about what happened in the morning. Nightingale also returned her wand, mostly on a whim.

"So why were you fighting with Kirche?"

He asked as he sat in a chair across from her. The girl herself was sitting on her bed.

"She kept on calling me a Zero, and claiming the only thing I could do is buy people. She still thinks you are a regular commoner that I bought off."

"She said that earlier today, and you didn't try to blow her up then."

"She claimed that I was b-b-buying you w-w-with my b-b-body."

She stuttered out in response.

"Okay, first, you need to work on that stutter. Steel doesn't stutter."

Nightingale said, trying to put it in words she could understand.

"Second, I'm pretty sure there is more to it than that."

"Of course there is! Do you know how embarrassing it is to act like you are just a commoner when I know you aren't! Do you know how embarrassing it is to pretend that my one success at magic was also a failure? To know that that one success is better at magic than I am?"

She demanded of him, red faced.

"Not to mention, the way you seemed to gather familiar with trivial ease, had people claiming that you were more magical than me. Even without your magic! Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

Nightingale shrugged. No, he didn't. He used a magic system that didn't require talent. That only requires brains, and dedication. People who failed were idiots, or lazy. There wasn't anyone that worked their ass off and still failed... probably. Still, that didn't matter.

"Well, it doesn't matter."

Ah, there was the famous Louise pouting now.

"Just to check, the deeds of the familiar are considered the deeds of the master right?"

Louise nodded. Confusion apparent.

"Okay, I'm wondering if you would be willing to help me with something tomorrow morning. I'm not going to beg, nor will I take it as a favor from you. Do it if you want to do it, not because I asked."

Now that that was out there, he just needed the hook before she responded.

"It will involve demonstrating your superiority over Kirche. Publicly. Oh, and if everything goes well, she might have to write home explaining how a Valliere bested her, and ask for assistance."

And now Louise was begging him to let her help him.

_All according to plan!_


	6. It's Time to Duel!

_Sorry this chapter took so long to write up. I will also try to go through the previous chapters this weekend to fix grammar. Didn't realize how excessive my spelling/grammar errors were. Sorry._

_Also, slightly longer than normal. Contains first fight scene._

_**Bigreader in the Universe**:_

_This character has never seen a DnD rule book, nor does he know about those. He did come from a world that mostly followed the DnD rules though, but not completely (I'm taking xp, rounds, and initiative as abstractions, and odds can't be broken down into 5% increments a'la d20 rolling). This universe also followed a number of the DMG guidelines and gaming tropes that there are. Having relatively good mental scores, and having adventured in this world for years, I would argue that he would pick up on a number of counter-intuitive rules, or ones that our world doesn't follow (for example, spell level, spells per day, and caster level are all incremental, and VERY easy to measure precisely.). But not all of them. So semi-genre savvy character._

_A number of his thoughts are just him being sarcastic to himself, or thinking about what it would be like if the world worked that way though. For example, he doesn't know of the existence of a narrator or a GM. Mostly because in-universe, those don't exist._

_Also, I do want to continue this, at least until I get to a point where Nightingale starts heavily influencing the setting. Sadly I seem to be taking my sweet time going through the story XD_

* * *

Not much else happened until the next morning. Louise was too excited to sleep, so they spent a few hours reviewing her class material, Nightingale working through them starting with the very basics, while Louise worked away on her homework.

Thankfully she was too distracted with the thought of publicly "beating" a Zerbest to realize she should question Nightingale about himself. Or his abilities. Or how at all he would pull off his victory.

After a while, she finally got to sleep, Nightingale continuing to read until past mid-night, when he once again headed off to the forest. Tonight, after his prayers, he once again noticed the strange blue avian flying in the sky.

Once more he ignored it, returning to the castle, though this time he avoided the servants' quarters. He felt bad about it, but did not want to risk getting held up. Once he lay down his cards, it wasn't his style to go back and try to change them.

Also, he was carrying a basket for some reason. When morning came and Louise woke, even she wouldn't know where the basket came from, or why he carried it.

* * *

When morning came, Nightingale was reading once more, though he put down the book as the light of dawn entered the room. A few castings of **Unseen Servant** later, Louise's clothing was being prepared at the side of her bed. Once that was done, he sent one of the servants under her blankets to tickle her awake.

After Louise twisted around for a few seconds, her breathing quickening, she suddenly shot up, nearly jumping out of the bed, her face bright red. Observing this, Nightingale made a mental note that next time, he should specify for the servant _where_ it should tickle her. Or possibly to use a different method to wake her up.

"Morning Louise."

He said casually, no hint of shame in his voice at what his spell had just accidentally done.

"You!"

Louise growled at him, so he decided to cut her off before she got any momentum.

"Your clothes are already prepared. You should hurry, you need to be in time for Kirche's daily habit of putting you down. Today it is important that you don't miss her."

Sure, not the most inspiring thing, but he didn't care. If this was a major transgression, she would remember it in a few hours, when time wasn't precious, and they could discuss it then.

After a few seconds of thought, Louise seemed to steel herself, and then started dressing, and getting ready for the day, while Nightingale took care of making the bed, the laundry, and other such trivialities.

_Wonder why she needs to steel herself. I'm the one that is going to be doing all the work._

* * *

A short bit of preparation later, the two of them exited her room, Louise walking confidently in the front, while Nightingale followed behind in mock obedience. At his side, he carried a large, empty basket, the only difference in his outfit from yesterday.

It didn't take them long to reach Kirche's room, where she was obviously waiting in ambush to belittle Louise. Oh, she made it seem like she was just exiting her room at the exact same time Louise walked by, but Nightingale's senses had already told him she had been standing right by the door until then.

"Hello Zero."

The girl called to them casually.

"Hello Zerbest. I see you are trying to copy my familiar."

Louise said, nodding her head at the shape of Pelisson that was exiting Kirche's room right behind her.

"Copying you Zero? Pelisson has been my lover long before you made that commoner yours. You are copying me."

Louise blushed slightly, but not too much. Nightingale had given her a rough outline of what sort of responses she could expect from Kirche. He couldn't give her a step by step manual, but she had a rough idea of what responses to make.

"Lover? I don't know how you Germanian barbarians do it, but we are civilized here in Tristain. We don't make our familiars into lovers. I do have to say, I feel sorry for Flame if that is what you have been using him for."

Needless to stay, Kirche was stunned. Not that she was outwitted – she hadn't been outwitted – rather by the fact of how casually Louise was replying. She was expecting her rival to blush, stutter, yell, and run away.

"Well that would certainly explain why Flame jumped you in the courtyard Pelly."

Nightingale said from right next to Kirche. Both her and Pelisson blinked, having not noticed him move up next to them, and start petting Flame. Flame was purring someone, and suddenly shot its tongue out at Pelisson, making the boy flinch away.

"You know Pelisson, I'm starting to realize that you are like my foil. Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if the only reason you exist is because whatever God or Author is writing our existence just wanted to put in someone pathetic that I could look like a badass next to."

Nightingale smiled, ignoring the glare from the boy.

"Still, I thank you for your actions acknowledging that I'm the dominant of us two opposites."

"Kinda like how I'm the superior and Kirche is the inferior?"

Louise asked, trying to sound innocent, and as if the question had not been rehearsed before hand, while still being similar to the kind of thing she might come up with on the spur of the moment.

"I am NOT your inferior Zero/Commoner!"

The pair of boobs and its boy toy shouted in union. They were clearly enraged, and Pelisson started reaching for his wand, before Flame started crawling on him, making the boy flinch away. _Well, this Windalfr ability sure is useful._

"I am sure you will be happy to prove that the first opportunity you get."

Louise said with a smirk before she strolled off. Nightingale got up and followed right behind her, carrying a smile of his own. It had more or less gone as planned. After this, there was no way they would refuse a duel, no matter the stakes. The risk of them demanding a duel here and now had been the only risk really.

_I guess they were too shocked the whole time to think of it. Or in Pelisson's case, too busy avoiding the lust I had induced in Flame. I should stop doing that. Kind of a dick move. I shouldn't be picking Flame's encounters for him._

As he was contemplating this, Nightingale suddenly stumbled, realizing a flaw in his perfect plan. It wouldn't necessarily destroy the entire plan, but he hated making such obvious flaws.

_Do these primitive savages even know what a foil is?_

* * *

For breakfast, Nightingale followed Louise into the dining hall. She had gotten special permission from the teachers for him to eat here.

_In hindsight, I should have told some of the staff this. Hopefully they don't look for me outside. Oh well. No matter how detailed my plans, something will Murphy it up anyways. Might as well make it something trivial._

The dining hall was enormous – in fact it was the largest building on campus – providing a massive open space filled with three tables, one for each of the years. Each table could seat over a hundred students, and there was sufficient space between the space that the staff didn't have to squeeze through while serving nobles who found reaching across the table – or heaven forbid, _asking_ each other – for some delicacies to be too undignified.

The tables appeared to be made out of finely carved high quality wood, and a large number of the plates were made out of nearly-pure silver. There really weren't any supports within the room to hold up the decorated sealing which – according to Nightingale's heavily lacking engineering knowledge – indicated that the entire place was either built of some combination of mithral and adamantium, or held together by magic.

There was a rather large number of staff members working here, and catering to the needs of the nobles. They were wearing perfectly clean quality clothes, lest their views offend their so-called betters. They appeared to be moving with a practiced grace, and if one stood back to observe, would notice that the entire group of a few dozen servants had been choreographed to move in perfect harmony with one another. It was as if they were performing an intricate dance while serving the brats. The brats, of course barely noticed the staff.

There was also a second floor where the teachers could be seated and look down upon the students. Or, as they were wont to do, happily ignore the dealings of the student body. _That suits me perfectly_. Up there they were served by their own set of servants, while drinking wine. A number of the male faculty – including an ancient old man that redefined wizard stereotypes that Nightingale assumed to be the head master – were openly ogling a few of the staff.

"Tristain's Academy of Magic doesn't teach just magic, you know."

Louise said proudly. _Haven't we had this conversation already? Oh well, I guess I can let her brag for a bit._

"Since only nobles can learn magic, our dining halls must also be fitting for a noble's status. Consequently the only time commoners can enter this place or anywhere this grand is as part of the staff."

Nightingale really wasn't surprised. It seemed that baseless elitism was built into the system to the point that he couldn't make a comparison without coming off as incredibly politically incorrect.

"This Alviss Dining Hall is second in all of Tristain only to the royal court's dining hall. So what do you think?"

The girl asked proudly, turning to look at him. Nightingale considered lying for a moment, but then decided that honesty was the best policy.

"Lets see. Beautiful hall that is a marvel of magical engineering, expensive and artful decorations, a massive variety of meals, ability to seat a large number of guests, and an excellent, professional serving staff. I have seen where kings dine with their highest nobles, and this can indeed rival or beat many of those. I'm honestly impressed."

His heart cringed upon seeing Louise's grin. _Since when did I start giving a damn about hurting this girl's feelings?_

"But... A full third of the student body has worse table manners than most farmers I have encountered. The rest seem unfamiliar with the phrase 'thank you', and have received no education to basic person-to-person etiquette for dealing with staff. Honestly, your so-called nobility makes this place look like a pigsty. Filled with pigs that grope the hand that feeds them. And they seem to get away with it. That part quite frankly disgusts me.

"Now, mind if we go get something to eat? I'm kind of starving."

He said as he strolled off, leaving a gaping Louise behind. Next to Louise, a maid who seemed to have overheard what he said stumbled, and nearly fell. Thankfully, she was just carrying away plates, and there wasn't anything to spill.

It took Louise a few seconds of gaping before she ran to catch up to him. She was somewhat fuming as the two of them took their seats, Louise her usual seat, and Nightingale the one on her left. That got a few raised eyebrows, but no one said anything for now. It wasn't their seat he was taking after all.

* * *

Nightingale had just gotten through being given a lecture on how _tea_ was a _luxury. _Apparently the people here didn't have the capability to grow tea. Instead, they had to import it from some Eastern nation. That was separated from Halkegenia by a desert. Full of cannibalistic elves. Making the journey incredibly difficult.

Yes, apparently there were merchants who made a living crossing a _continent sized dessert_ full of super powered beings that wanted to kill them, so that they could smuggle _tea_ back here and sell it for a high enough price that most nobles couldn't afford it. Because until now, no one had the bright idea of _growing tea_. No, that would be too much work. It is a lot cheaper to risk your lives carrying it in a freaking caravan across hostile territory.

_Savages._

"Hey commoner! That is my seat! Get out of there and on the ground where your kind belong."

Frankly, Nightingale almost jumped out of his seat, hugged the guy, and then thanked him for the interruption, so he that he wouldn't have to keep contemplating the utter barbarity of these lands. Almost. Instead, he calmly turned around, turned up his nose, and glared at Malicorne the Fatass.

"Hello Sir Jello. Looking to join your friends on the plate? Sorry but I'm not interested. Maybe you can try elsewhere? I'm sure there is someone interested in you." He casually glanced up and down the chubby second year that he first met two days ago. The guy probably weight a good 300 pounds, but was barely over 5 feet. And was made up of mostly fat. "Actually I take that back. I doubt anyone would be interested."

He said casually, before turning back around to continue his breakfast. The students around them seemed to be stuck between giggling, and being silent so that they could watch the show. Malicorne on the other hand appeared to be shaking with barely controlled rage.

"Do you have any idea who I am commoner? I'm Malicorne de Grandple, the son of a baron!"

"Why does your parentage matter? Are you going to running to daddy crying 'wah, wah, daddy someone took my seat, wah, wah'? I'm sure your parents must be _very_ proud of your total and complete dependence on them."

Nightingale considered maybe turning around to face the kid again. After a few seconds, he did so, and got to witness the boy's entire body turning a shade of red similar to Kirche's hair.

"How dare you!"

The boy shouted, shaking.

"Sir Malicorne, I do believe this commoner's insults come from ignorance."

Ah, there was Guiche, the young fop, walking up next to Malicorne. Still, did he had to have a rose in his mouth?

"That doesn't excuse his actions Guiche."

"As nobles, better than the common rabble, it is our place to be gracious and benevolent. Rather than hating on this plebeian you should bless his with your superior knowledge, and teach him his place in the world."

Malicorne seemed slow enough not to catch the meaning for a bit. However, the crowd helped as they whispered to each other trying to figure out Gucihe's meaning. Eventually, the word "duel" kept floating around in the crowd. As clarification hit Malicrone, he rounded on Nightingale.

"Very well commoner, I shall be gracious to you. I challenge you to a duel. You should be honored that I'm taking my time to educate you on the ways of this world."

Nightingale calmly got to his feet, and looked down at the fat brat. As Malicorne took a step back, Nightingale relented his gaze, and turned to look at the crowd until this quieted.

"First, am I safe in assuming that duels between commoners and nobles are legal?" He waited for a few nods from the crowd. "Very well. I have no reason to deny this duel. However before that, I also would like to establish my superiority over Sir Pelisson. I was wondering if I could fight both of you at once to save myself some time. Unless, of course, Pelly is scared?"

"How dare you commoner!" Pelisson yelled, marching out of the crowd Kirche walking next to him confused. Probably confused at the smirk on Louise's face. "I am a noble and there is no way I would be scared of you."

"Well if neither of you are scared, there should be no reason for either of you to back down from this duel. Am I to take it that you two are brave enough to fight me at once?" Both of them nodded. "Excellent! Now then, what are we betting on the outcome?"

He asked that with a perfectly innocent smile. But everyone looked at him confused. Some people were muttering "bet?" in confusion. That a commoner was acting like he was in control likely wasn't helping the situation.

"A bet is when you risk a predefined good based on the outcome of an event where the winner and loser can be clearly determined. Like a duel." Louise supplied happily. "Since all the loser has to say is 'yield' to end the fight, you need something riding on the fight so that the loser actually loses something. How about we make the bet money? That shouldn't worry you, unless you are afraid of losing?"

No one seemed to notice how this speech didn't really fit Louise's personality. Mainly because she was going off a scrip that Nightingale had written.

"But how much money could a mere commoner bet?" Crowd filler A asked.

"As he is my familiar, clearly I will be footing the bill. Well, so long as Kirche is willing to help with your side of the bill. Unless she realizes that a Zerbest's boyfriend is inferior to a Valliere familiar? After all, we are the superior family."

It was a shot in the dark, but hopefully that damned family rivalry would benefit her for once.

"There is no way a Zerbest would back down from a Valliere, Zero. I don't know what you are planning, but there is no way a mere commoner would win against Pelisson. I will enjoy humiliating you Zero." Kirche said with confidence, before whispering something in Pelisson's ears about 'reward' and 'victory' that made him blush.

"So, how about we call the odds 5 to 1? They would be 4 to 1 if all three of them were equal, and my familiar was fighting them one at a time and healing up in between fights. So unless you think Nightingale is superior to both of them, these odds are in your favor. Say, I pay each of you 500 ecu if he loses, and you each pay me quadruple that when he wins?"

"Deal. Now I wonder what I should buy with all that money? I hope you enjoy writing a letter asking your family for money and explaining it is going to a Zerbest, Louise." Kirche said casually. She didn't know that this was Nightingale's money that he had gotten at the bank yesterday. They were only risking something they could afford to lose.

"Deal!" Pelisson – or was it his manhood? Nightingale wasn't sure – said immediately afterward. He didn't want to disappoint his girlfriend apparently.

Malicorne on the other hand seemed a bit hesitant. However, now there was a large crowd looking at him. Backing down now would ruin his pride. "Deal!" He finally relented.

"So where shall we have the duel? And would an hour from now be convenient? I would like to finish my breakfast."

"The Vestari Courtyard commoner! Don't be late!"

Pelisson said before he and Kirche left. The crowd dispersed after a bit, while Malicorne went off to find a new seat, and Guiche sent Nightingale a wink. By the sound of it though, everyone was discussing the upcoming duel, and making their own bets. Mostly on how quickly Nightingale would be chopped to pieces.

"I swear, if you lose, I will kill you." Louise hissed. He only smiled at her.

* * *

Siesta was worried. Louise de la Valliere's handsome familiar was going to fight two nobles at once. How the two of them tag teamed in setting up the situation, it was clear that they had planned this ahead of time. She didn't know what game the Valliere child was playing, but clearly the girl wanted to humiliate her familiar. Maybe she wanted to torture him for some minor slight? Either way, there was nothing she could do about it.

Kirche was also worried. Now that she was no longer in the heat of the movement, she realized how much Louise and her familiar had coordinated. As if they had planned this out ahead of time. It didn't make sense; no matter their plans, it fell apart at the point that it was impossible for a commoner to beat a single noble, let alone two.

Logic told her there was nothing to worry about. All that would happen is that handsome familiar would be put in his place, and once he was obedient, she could snatch her up. After all, traditions had to be maintained, especially if it meant putting her fangs in such a delicious meal. Sure he might get a bit hurt, but nothing a little bit of magic couldn't heal. And yet, Kirche was worried. Despite all logic, she was scared. The stakes were too high not to be.

Tabitha and Joanna were curious. They knew that Nightingale wasn't a normal commoner. Joanna only knew about his ability to command animals, but there must be some other reason for his confidence. He couldn't think that he would be allowed to hijack everyone's familiars and mob the two nobles. Tabitha knew from her familiar, Sylphid, that Nightingale tended to mysteriously appear and disappear in the forest at night.

There was something about him she didn't understand. Not regular elemental magic. Nor was it any of the creatures she had faced before. Nightingale was something _unique_, something _different_. And today she would get to see his ability. That was good. Different had a lot of potential. Potential danger as an enemy, and a potential savior as an ally. She squashed that last thought though. She had given up hope once already. Hope only lead to despair. She couldn't afford to hope anymore. She didn't have the strength to hope and then despair anymore. No, she was merely here to observe, not to hope.

Louise didn't know what to feel. She knew her familiar had some magic. Yet she didn't know the extent of it. She didn't know how it compared to the magic of Brimir's disciples. Well, okay, it would be inferior obviously. However, she didn't know how inferior. Malicorne and Pelisson were both dot class mages, the bottom of the barrel. Even if he used an inferior magical system, he might still beat them. Still, why was he carrying a basket to the courtyard?

Professor Colbert was in Headmaster Osmond's office. He had just walked in on the Headmaster – an old man of over a century of age that had enough beard to make a dwarf jealous that liked to practice perverted acts and tended to have convenient bouts of amnesia – being assaulted by his green haired, well endowed, and extremely curvy assistant. Likely for fondling her ass, or peaking up her skirt. To be frank, Colbert was a bit jealous of Osmod. He hadn't had a woman in so long, he would have happily participated in the perversions if a minor beating was all he would get for it as punishment.

Still, that wasn't why he was here. As soon as he had entered, the old man had dismissed the secretary, and together the two man had discussed Nightingale's runes – the runes of Windalfr the right hand of god, Brimir's second familiar – and its implications. They continued the discussion until the time for the duel came. Having been in the dining hall, both of them knew of the duel and when it would happen. They hadn't stopped it.

Now they were curious as to how the boy would use the power of Windalfr – the ability to command any wild creatures – to fight two mages. And so they used Osmond's scrying crystal to look at the fight. The crowd had already formed a circle around the combat area. Ms. Valliere was there, as was Ms. Kirche, Mr. Malicorne, and Mr. Pelisson. It looked like the fight was about to start. Except Nightingale wasn't there yet.

As the two looked at each other in confusion, the fight started. Malicorne and Pelisson launched spells at the empty air, and a short time later blood was drawn. Osmond and Colbert paled. Perhaps Nightingale was invisible? But the students seemed to be acting like they could see him. Without a word, Colbert rushed for the window, jumped out, levitated down, and then charged for the courtyard to see the fight in person. And probably to stop it.

* * *

As Nightingale felt himself get observed by a scrying effect, he cursed inwardly. Since only short range scrying existed here, he had forgotten about it for the time being. Which meant he had kept his **Mind Blank** spell up. Now some smhuck somewhere would know that he couldn't be detected by scrying type spells. He had hoped to keep that secret for a lot longer.

Well, it didn't matter now. He strolled into the middle of the area the crowd had vacated for them, basket in hand. He had used **Ironwood** to make a basket as hard as steal, and then used **Spikes** on it to make it, well, spiky. Magically so. To a ridiculous degree. As for well he got the basket? His Handy-Haversack of course! Yes, he carried around a god damn basket, big enough to wield as a two handed weapon, just on the off chance he would need to beat someone up with a basket. He was a bit crazy.

"Why do you have a basket?"

"Well, you guys have wands. I figured I should get a weapon as well. Unless you feel baskets are too powerful?"

They shook their heads. The fools. They didn't understand the true horrors of a basket master. Nightingale had beaten martial arts masters with a basket before! Granted, he had on a sufficient number of buffs at those times to blind anyone using **Detect Magic** on him at those times, and had been fighting monks. Still, he had only slightly less buffs on himself right now. He wasn't quite at the level of a true master of the blade, but he could at least give them a run for their money... Well, okay, not really. But that wasn't his job.

"I'm Pelisson de Marlotte, the Rapid Stream."

"I'm Malicorne de Grandple, the Windward."

"I'm Nightingale. A pleasure."

"Well then, ladies and gentlemen!" Guiche yelled, magically broadcasting his voice, as he almost danced in the spot. Absolutely no one swooned at him. Although half the female population did seem to swoon at Nightingale brushing his hair at that moment. Including Guiche's girlfriend. The guy thought they were swooning for him though.

"It is my pleasure to bring you this marvelous fight, where two nobles shall take it upon themselves to educate a commoner about his place in the world. May all combatants fight with honor, as the glory and superiority of nobles is demonstrated. May this fight be beautiful in its harsh truce. Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you all have been waiting for." Boy did he like to hear himself talk. Nightingale brushed his hair again. Some more swooning. "Begin!"

* * *

"Gale blast!"

Malicorne yelled, poking his wand forward, and launching a spear of air at Nightingale. Well, if spears were non-lethal to a naked baby. He simply jumped to the right, and charged forward, rushing at Malicorne.

"Rapid Stream!"

Pelisson yelled as he made a complicated series of motions, most of it with this wand, though a hit thrust, hair brushing, and sending a kiss to Kirche were mixed into it. In the corner of his eyes, Nightingale could make out the poor girl almost puking at this show.

The excessive posing seemed to drain all the water out of the ground around them, instantly drying it. It formed a knee high stream of water in a large area, that would have knocked Nightingale off his feet and dragged him along the ground, had he not leaped clear of it. As is though, he landed so that Malicorne was located between him and Pelisson. He was on all fours, ready to rush when Malicorne finished his next spell.

"Levitate!"

It seemed Malicorne's style was to use weak spells that could be fired quickly, while Pelisson focused more on power. As powerful as dot class spells could be anyways. Either way, Nightingale was lifted off of his feet and into the air by the spell. He didn't have long to think. If he didn't get down now, Pelisson would get a clear shot at him. So the instant his feet left the ground, he threw his basket, the object whirling through the air before striking Malicorne in the stomach.

The spell broke, and Nightingale landed on the ground, already sprinting. Pelisson seemed to have started his follow up spell even before the levitate went off, and sadly in his shock his reaction time slowed down enough that he ended up completing the spell instead of halting it.

"Whip Lash!"

The spell went off the same moment as when Nightingale reached Malicorne's body. Yanking his spiked basket out, he noticed that he had drawn blood from Malicorne's stomach. Not really caring about it, he tackled the boy, shoving him into the two water whips that came flying horizontally. Both stuck the chubby brat, making a loud slapping sound that made the crowd go quiet while Malicorne was sent flying.

Nightingale ducked and continued charging, running by under his flying cover. One moment he was in the range of the whips, and the next he was too close for Pelisson to safely use them. As he swung his basket, the boy uttered the word "Blade". This appeared to be a spell that didn't require any fancy wand motion as it simply gave his wand an extended blade – perhaps he was using a Psionic Spirit Blade? - that he used to block the basket.

The problem here was, Nightingale was, well ripped would be putting it really mildly right now. Normally his strength was below average, so comparable to these nobles. Currently though, he was technically in the form of a Deva with **Bite of the Werebear** on. So he was as strong as a werebear angel of war. A casual block by some weakling wasn't going to do jack shit to stop his attacks. He ended up shoving both blade and basket into Pelisson.

"Pathetic."

Uttering that word, he pulled the basket out, and strolled away from the two, back to where he started. He moved rather casually, seemingly uncaring that his back was turned on them. Not that the two were likely to attack. With the way he moved, seeming to turn walking into the pinnacle of dancing, even the audience ended up holding their breaths, just staring at him as he moved. This time, he swore some of those swooning were guys.

"And you pieces of shit call yourselves noble? Because you have magic, you gain titles, and the law treats you as better than those without magic. During times of peace, you justify subjugating the common folk, freely toying with and destroying their lives, with the claims that during wartime you would protect them. You demand obedience, respect, and the right to utterly trample over them and anything they hold precious because of your supposed superiority, your claim to act as their shield."

Nightingale turned on them as he began his speech. There was no passion. There was no emotion. He said it in a complete monotone voice. He didn't yell. He didn't really speak loudly. With the way the crowd was being quiet, everyone heard him. The only other noise was Pelisson and Malicorne moaning as they tried to get up.

"And yet what do we find when your ability to protect them is tested? You are weak. You have never in your lives protected anyone, never _earned_ the right to all the privileges you have enjoyed. To make matters worse, you do not have the ability to protect anyone. To repay the people who have sacrificed their lives, who have been wronged and violated, so you could enjoy the luxuries that you enjoyed. I'm beating you two on one with a god damn basket of all things. I'm beating you, without magic, at the one thing magic is supposed to make you superior at; fighting."

There was a hint of emotion in his voice now, and it made the two kids shudder as they were trying to get up. Well, as Pelisson was trying to get up. Malicorne had apparently never tried to get up, merely hold his stomach in pain.

"Stand up you two. Stand up and fight. Show me that your lives weren't meaningless, that you aren't parasites, destroying this country. Show everyone here that all the money that Tristain has poured into you two, all the sacrifices that the common folk have made for you two aren't meaningless. That you two are valid investments that will start repaying your country and its people for all that it has given you. If you are too much of a disgrace to even do that, than just commit suicide here and now. If all you are going to do is keep harming your country, then end your miserable existences. After all, such an existence is no different from treason."

Maybe it wasn't the best speech ever. In fact, it was possible that he could easily be proven objectively wrong. The people he was arguing against were, however, one chobby guy who started crying and wetting himself, and another kid for whom it was taking all of his will power to stand up and pull out his wand. Both were pampered brats with entitlement complexes, never even taught about reality, let alone experiencing it. It was, essentially arguing against a strawman. Or it would be if they bothered arguing back at all.

"Whip Lash!"

Pelisson yelled. Nightingale simply dropped his basket, and sidestepped the first whip of water, moving in closer. He ducked under the second whip, and then rolled to the side and forward, as a whip struck down diagonally at him. As he completed his rolled he hopped slightly, letting the whip that was trying to hit his legs go by under him. He landed with a light "thud" on the ground, and strolled forward with perfect grace, closing the distance as he moved.

"Having never experienced pain, you do not understand it."

As he spoke, the two whips both struck down at him vertically. He didn't dodge. He let them strike him, not making a single noise. He was pushed back half a step, that was it. And then he continued moving forward again. He could feel a minute bruise. That was it, and he didn't care. It was just pain. Pelisson's eyes went wide at this.

"Having never experienced pain, you believed that it was nothing, something trivial. You did not consider the feelings of those in pain, because you didn't understand what being in pain was. You associated the pain you inflicted on others, with the small pin pricks you have experienced in your life."

Another two whips hit him. Once more, he stopped, and then continued moving forward. He honestly didn't know why he was doing this. For some reason he wanted to send them a message, and this seemed like the clearest way. To use an example to explain what he meant. Pelisson was looking at him in horror though.

"Now that you experience pain for the first time, now that it takes you every ounce of your willpower to bear that pain, you believe inflicting pain is enough to win battle. Having experienced pain for the first time, you do not understand how someone can bear the pain, and simply keep going. The thought that maybe this pain you are feeling, this _torture_ that I have dared inflict upon you is something that nobles inflict on commoners everyday. Something so common, that commoners must learn to bear it and keep going. Being so self centered, you never considered the torture that you inflict upon others that you don't consider worthy of your attention."

One of the whips struck him across the face. That was okay. He had dodged enough for it to miss his eyes. It cut his cheek, and made the inside of his mouth bleed, but that was it. He spit out the blood, and kept going.

"If you are wondering, there isn't any secret to keep going despite the pain. You must simply become accustomed to the pain, that is it. To become able to take any amount of pain, any beating, and keep going without slowing down, because you are _regularly_ exposed to something a lot worth, is a mandatory skill for a real soldier."

This time the whips wrapped around him. He simply slipped through. He was now standing face to face with Pelisson. The guy had been slowly backing up, but this seemed to be his limit.

"As a noble fighting for your country is your duty, and yet you haven't even begun studying the very first lesson. You can't even fight, and you think you are superior to me? You think that just because you have magic, you can wave your wand, chant a word, and without a single thought demonstrate your superiority? Stop living in an illusion kid. Stop living in a system that _oppresses_ most of its citizens because off an illusion. Grow the fuck up."

Nightingale simply backhanded the boy, knocking the kid to the ground.

"You might want to yield now."

He said, only for both nobles to immediately utter "yield".

"Well, at least you held your head high, and stood up. Unlike a certain bag of Jelly that wet itself. For that at least you deserve respect. Next time, try saying, or yelling your beliefs back. It tends to help you gather courage, and push yourself harder."

With that, he turned around, and started massaging his shoulders. As he did, the crowd suddenly moved as if a dam had broken. Both him and Pelisson were surrounded, girls with water magic pushing to the front to heal the two of them. Malicorne on the other hand, was ignored. No one glanced at the boy who had shamed nobles, and then didn't try afterward, but just curled up in a ball to cry. Well, no one but Professor Colbert who had just arrived. He seemed to take one look at the boy, pick up him, and carried him towards the hospital.


	7. The Competent and the Idiot

_**Aodh**_

_The main reason why Nightingale didn't try to wipe out the entire class is because he didn't know he could. Generally a summoning spell lets you summon creatures that are as powerful as you or weaker than you (limited to Caster Level of Hit Dice for planar ally/binding). Based on the spells that he is familiar with, he was sorely outmatched._

_And yes, he is acting like a doormat. Key word being "acting". The only reason he is staying on this plane rather than removing the familiar runes – easily accomplished by killing Louise – and buggering off, is because he wants to end the current form of government. In my opinion, blatant use of force and violence against anyone that disagrees with you isn't very effective at accomplishing that. It is a lot more satisfying, yes, but unless you have the power to take on their armies by yourself and win, as well as the charms to recruit people to your cause after performing genocide on the nobility without threats of death, it doesn't work. Building up a support base slowly and not antagonizing people too much until you are ready to crush them under your leather shoes is much more effective._

_That said, I do agree that he might be behaving too much like a doormat right now. I think I tried too hard in making him avoid being a tantrum prone bully that I see in some other works, and went too far in the opposite direction. I will try to correct that from the next chapter on._

_Also, he isn't on par with gods. He can, in a party, take on demigods. Which is still quite the accomplishment to be sure._

_As for why he didn't bugger off back home right off the bat, he thought it was a Planar Ally spell. He is an aligned outsider, so he is a valid target for those._

* * *

The girls spent well over five minutes healing them of their injuries. Nightingale was certain that it didn't actually take them that long to heal the injuries. Especially since it wouldn't have taken his passive magical healing to heal him up without help. Of course, the way they were busy touching every inch of his upper body gave him a pretty good idea of why they were taking so long.

Louise in the meantime seemed to be struggling between pride and fury. She was proud that her familiar had beaten two nobles so completely. The familiar's actions were the master's, and he had shown her not to be a zero. She had won a bet against Zerbest, something that Kirche would have to tell her family about. This was great.

However, her damn familiar was completely surrounded by a crowd. They ignored her, trying to get his attention instead. The only exceptions were Kirche, who after uttering a congratulation was staring hungrily at her familiar, and Tabitha, who had tagged along with Kirche, and was now looking at her familiar with calculating eyes. Worst of all, he had girls literally clinging to him, claiming they were "healing" him. With that number, he could give Kirche a run for her money as to the number of admirers each had.

"We have class to go to!"

The girl finally yelled in frustration, and turned around to head towards class. A glance back told her that the crowd behind her was dispersing, and so she walked with her back straight, expecting her familiar to join her by her side. When after a short while he hadn't joined her, she stopped to turn around at look at what was taking him so long.

She noticed Nightingale being dragged away by two maids. Both of them seemed to be sporting well developed bodies, with one of them around Louise's height, and the other somewhat taller. The shorter girl had black hair – an unusual color – while her friend was a blond. As far as Louise was concerned, there was no other important physical characteristic about either girl. They seemed to be giggling as they led him off.

Nightingale acted in this situation as any rational, straight man without a significant other would when two beautiful women of around his age were fangirling over him, and trying to lead him off to somewhere private. He followed them of course, chatting them up the entire way. Siesta and Lola were nice girls after all, and he _was_ interested in getting a look of their room.

"Familiar! What are you doing?"

Louise shouted at the three of them, and started storming over. The trio stopped, the two girls turning pale as they saw the noble approaching. It seems that they realized that just because Nightingale could kill Louise without much trouble didn't mean that Louise couldn't get the two of them fired.

"We just thought that Nightingale-sama would be tired after his duel, and were bringing him to our room to rest, mistress."

Siesta – the black haired maid – said to Louise. And 'eep'd' when Louise glared at her.

"Don't you have work to do? Get going you useless flirt. My familiar is in good enough condition to attend on me while I sit through class."

The two girls naturally bowed, and then left, running to get back to work. They didn't feel like being at ground zero for the fight between Louise and her familiar, no matter how handsome.

"And you! What the hell do you think you are doing? You perverted dog!"

Nightingale merely shrugged. "I was invited by them to see their room, and I was interested in what it looked like. Also, I'm not a dog. Far too inefficient. When I feel like turning into a canine, I prefer the route of a legendary wolf."

Louise gaped. "What do you mean turn into a canine."

"Precisely what I said." Nightingale said with a smile. "Now, I believe you have class to attend? I don't think the teachers are going to let you skip class just because you have beaten Kirche once."

* * *

Class started off relatively well. It was taught by a middle-aged female mage that exemplified the lack of physical training mandated to the nobility here. It was true that even back at home, wizards and sorcerers were relatively out of shape. However, that was compared to other adventurers. When your daily retinue consisted of getting exactly 8 hours of sleep, reading a few dozen pages in an hour and retaining every detail, and then spending the next 15 hours walking, fighting, blowing stuff up, jogging, sprinting, being hit, climbing, and crawling, "below-average fitness" took on a whole new meaning.

She wore a large pointed hat, dressed in a decent robe that the buttons had trouble keeping on her, and wore all black. She walked with a courtly grace, meaning she could trip over herself in an actual fight. As she got to the front of the "classroom" - it looked more like a room for mundane education, rather than for learning to rewrite the laws of reality and cause explosions – she looked over the class and smiled.

"Well I'm glad to see everyone has succeeded at their spring time summonings." She said cheerfully. "I'm..."

Nightingale decided to keep important facts about the rest of the class in bullet point format in his head. Most of this was useless junk. So far, he had that: She had a name. She was a triangle class earth mage. Guiche was also an earth mage. She could conjure some metal, and turn it to brass, both of which would be permanent. One needed to be a square class mage to turn metals into gold. Louise got overly proud and ended up being called on to demonstrate the spell to the class. The classroom blew up. Louise called this a "minor mistake". The teacher got knocked unconscious and class ended.

_Come to think of it, some of those points aren't strictly necessary._

Since Louise had been called on by the teacher, she wasn't held responsible for this explosion. Well, aside from having to clean it up. Nightingale, being her familiar, was stuck with helping her. Sadly, Louise was apparently expecting him to handle the entire thing while she sat back and moped about how big of a failure she was.

"You know I'm not going to start cleaning this place up until you do. I don't have anywhere to go urgently. You have class in less than an hour. You can't win a war of attrition."

Louise huffed at that. "I'm just a failure. What does it matter if I go to class anyways?"

"Honestly, not much." Nightingale answered after a moment. "You know the theory, so attending for that is a waste of time. Your teachers don't have the slightest clue how to draw out your magical potential, so attending for that is also pointless. Frankly, the only reasons for you to attend classes are maintaining appearances, and gambling on there being a teacher who can figure out what is wrong with your magic."

"I know what is wrong with my magic! It always explodes!" Louise yelled angrily.

"Do you know _why_ it always causes explosions? How many of your teachers had theories for it, and tested those theories? If you had a single decent teacher you should either know _precisely_ why your magic always causes an explosion, or have a list of at least 10 potential reasons that after careful experimentation have been proving wrong. So do you?"

"No," Louise answered confused. "That isn't a teacher's job."

"Actually that is _precisely_ what a magic teacher's job is. To teach you magic, find out why you are failing, and fix that. You clearly have magical energy. And you are their student. Unless your reason for not learning magic is that you aren't working hard enough, they are failing at their job. Now are you going to help me clean up this place?"

Finally Louise nodded, and got up to attend to the room. Nightingale went about righting desks, and using his ring to fix everything else with a lot of words.

"Now since I have gotten curious, why don't you tell me everything that you have tried so far?"

"I have tried simple spells of all four elements, as well as basic spells. Magic is supposed to flow natural when you cast a spell of your element, but for me it always resists."

"And?"

"That is it. I just kept trying those basics non-stop."

_Dear gods the teachers suck here._

He wasn't sure if he was interested in fixing her problem. It seemed like an interesting side project, but it could take oh-so-long.

"Which of your professors tends to be the most interested in research? Which is the nicest to his students and most willing to work with them?"

"Eh? Professor Colbert for both of them. Why?"

"No reason." _I guess an hour long chat with the guy couldn't hurt. When I get around to it._

* * *

Once they finished cleaning up, they were barely in time to make it to Louise's next class, which was about water magic. Healing specifically. The professor had enough sense to ask only for volunteers, specifically those with confidence and a good track record. A mis-cast healing could do horrible things to a body. _Hmmm. I should research a way to miscast healing spells on purpose._

Since that meant Louise was not called up to demonstrate, nothing exciting happened. Overall, Nightingale was able to confirm that the school's Triangle Class water mage professor's healing skills were inferior to his own. True, the other did not need to predict his daily healing load out ahead of time. But that was the cost of using _real_ magic as Nightingale saw it.

After that, it was back to Louise's room to do... something. Nightingale still wasn't sure why she wanted him to follow her back to her room. If she wanted to discuss something with him, surely that could have happened while they were cleaning ground zero of her last spell?

"Mind if I ask your advice on something?" He asked as they walked. He wasn't really interested in the girl's advice, just wanted her flustered a bit.

"Wh-what do you... Of course. I, as an honorable noble will be proud to bestow my glorious advice on to you." Louise stammered out, trying to sound proud. Nightingale just rolled his eyes.

"Well, I noticed in class that some of the girls were eying me like a well cooked piece of meat. Kirche especially seemed to be quite the delicacy amongst them. Do you think I should give her a try? Ravaging a beautiful woman after victory in a fight _is_ a well respected tradition from where I am from."

For some reason Louise stumbled at the thought of her familiar getting intimate with her rival/enemy. And then she blushed as the images came to her mind. Finally, her face got red in anger, as she turned on her familiar.

"A-a-absolutely no way! Such an indecent thing, I will not allow it."

"First," Nightingale answered calmly, raising a single finger. "I don't _need_ your permission. Second", he said raising a second finger, "it is only indecent if we are caught. Although that could be fun in its own way... And Thirdly," he said raising two more fingers, "I do intend to ravage someone. I'm just wondering if it should be Kirche or not."

Louise seemed to be too embarrassed and/or furious to notice that he had four fingers up at point three. _Ah, what is the point of jokes if people don't notice them._ "No, absolutely not! Anyone but her!"

"Anyone but her?"

"The Zerbests have been stealing the Valliere family's fiances for around two centuries now. I will not have my familiar stolen by them as well!"

"Ah, okay, so I will not go for her today. Maybe some other time?" Nightingale said casually. Louise seemed flustered. Hopefully she said something stupid that he could take advantage of.

"No, absolutely not! You can be with anyone you want, and I won't say a word. Just so long as it is not her." Yes, something stupid like that.

"Deal." Nightingale said, holding out his hand.

"Eh?"

"I accept your deal. Surely a noble wouldn't go back on her word?"

A short while later he left Louise, headed to help out with the kitchens, smirking as he went. _Now if only a princess that I could seduce dropped by. Given how much of a sticker she is for tradition and status, that might piss her off._

* * *

The next two days went by without much incident. Nightingale spent most of his day helping out in the kitchens – where they called him "Our Sword", a phrase that made him feel a bit uncomfortable and guilty – or attending classes with Louise. He took some notes during the classes, trying to learn in more detail the limits of magic in this world. Sadly nothing combat related was covered by the bastards.

He got along rather well with the servants, though he was a bit wary of telling them much of his past. That seemed to be noticed by them, creating somewhat of a divide between him and them.

Most of the male students seemed to be partly scared of him. They realized he could easily publicly humiliate them, but the fact that he didn't attack without provocation meant they were fine. They just had to treat him with respect, something that gnawed on their nerves. It also meant that harassment of the staff wasn't really an option anymore, not after one the students had attempted to force himself on a maid, only to wake up naked and bruised, hanging from a tree that he was tied to by his ankles with no recollection of how he got there.

The female students had a more split opinion on Nightingale. They all found him incredibly beautiful, with a ragged wild look that set many of them off. That he was a powerful combatant was another charm on its own. However, that still left the fact that he was a commoner, and they had been raised all their lives to value the social rank of someone. Their instincts were telling them to jump him, while their training was telling them to turn their noses up at him. They weren't sure which to follow.

It was currently night, and Nightingale was outside, sitting on the ground and reading a book by lamplight. The maid Siesta was lying next to him, using his lap as a pillow while he combed her hair with his fingers every so often. She seemed rather clingy, not that Nightingale minded really. His issue was rather the fact that she seemed to think she didn't deserve someone like him, that he was too good for her.

If only she knew the depths and depravity that he had consistently sunk to. The lies that he was allowing the serving staff to tell themselves because he was afraid of their rejection if he corrected them. He was a hero – he didn't deny that – but he definitely was not the flawless model of perfection and all that is good that she saw him as.

As he was contemplating this, he saw a few flashes of light, and looked up to notice Kirche and Louise walking over, in a heated discussion with each other. It appeared Kirche was using magic to make orbs of fire to light the way. Tabitha was following behind, reading a book as she walked.

"Good evening ladies. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Nightingale asked while he gently restrained Siesta from getting up. She resisted for a moment before contently resting herself on his lap again.

"T-t-this skank thinks that-" Louise began, only for Kirche to interrupt her.

"Well, I figured since I don't have the money that I owe you on hand, I could repay you in other ways?" Kirche asked while she somehow made her large melons bounce without seeming to move a muscle. "I know of a lot of ways to keep you entertained."

Siesta seemed to jump up at this in fright, or possibly jealousy. Nightingale was quite amazed at how her body literally lifted over a foot off the ground, though his amazement didn't stop him from shifting her so that she ended up taking his lap as her new seat. He reached a hand under her shirt, and gently slid it down her back – for some reason she was very sensitive there – making her purr in satisfaction. Louise blushed, while Kirche seemed even more intent on ravaging him. Tabitha on the other hand, well Nightingale almost missed the fact that she had taken in all of these actions. She held herself ready to fight, but looked extremely distracted.

"Hmmmm, well the only point of money is to exchange it for goods and services. And I can think of a service I would love for you to provide me with. So sure, though why don't we go to one of your rooms to discuss-"

"FIREBALL" The pink haired midget screamed, hurling a semi-visible orb of _something_ at Nightingale. He casually backhanded the spell away, making it go BOOM against one of the towers of the academy.

"There will be n-n-no illicit-" Louise cut off as Nightingale shoved a hand to her mouth, silencing her. Siesta appeared stuck beaten fright at having just had a spell shot at her, amazement that Nightingale deflected it, and pouting at being dropped from his lap. Kirche was wearing her surprise openly, while Tabitha was concealing it behind a near-impenetrable mask.

"Could you shut up for a moment? I will listen to your pointless drivel later. For now, I would like to figure out what to do with the massive golem, thank you very much." He said as he pointed at the large construct that had risen out of the ground by the academy walls, and was now heading towards where Louise had hit the tower.

The creature, a humanoid object made out of earth and stone, stood at an impressive 80 feet – or 30 mel in their measurement system – easily qualifying it as a square class golem. It lumbered forward with relatively stiff movements, exhibiting inferior flexibility compared to a regular human. However, it still made a decent pace as it walked, each step sending a loud echo into the silent night.

By a quick assessment, Nightingale judged this construct to be about half again as tall as the Tarresque. The stone it was made of was likely hardened via magic, giving this creation a toughness comparable to the unholy abomination that mindless creation of easily-side-stepped carnage and destruction known as the Tarresque. Overall, he had no intention of fighting this thing head on. Not when its creator could clearly be seen riding on its shoulder. Just a little well aimed lightning strike could take her out. But then, he had no reason to fight her.

The golem reached the academy tower that Louise had blasted in rapid order. At this point Nightingale noticed that her explosion had created a crack in the tower, something that the earth mage took advantage of by having the golem punch that spot. It took a whole three punches before the wall crumbled, creating an entrance into the room that was on the fifth or sixth floor probably. The earth mage rushed in there and came out a few seconds later carrying some object.

It was at this point that an explosive spell glanced against the golem's arm, blasting a small chunk out of it. _How the _fuck_ do you miss a 24 meter tall golem?_ The creature immediately started regrowing the damage as it pulled out of the tower, and looked over the small group. Kirche thought it might be a brilliant idea to fireball the golem's stomach, accomplishing even less than Louise had.

Nightingale promptly started escorting Siesta away from what was rapidly being petitioned into becoming 'Golem Stomping Ground Alpha'. As he had asserted before, he had no reason to fight that golem. He didn't consider defending girls that had assaulted the golem and were sure to die from the mage exorcizing self defense to be a sufficient reason.

Tabitha at least acted like an intelligent person, and started by calling Sylphid – her pet dragon – and getting on it. Rule one of fighting a melee foe that is stuck on the ground: shoot them from the air. She created a multitude of icicles and launched them at the made atop of the golem. The creation raised its arms blocking the attack, and then swung, sending a number of spikes back at Tabitha, forcing Sylphid to dodge.

At the same time the golem stumped over to where Louise and Kirche where, forcing Kirche to run for it, while Louise stood there screaming like a bloody idiot about honor and pride and not running away. And thinking that _dodging_ was the same as _running_. Or that screaming in battle like that accomplished jack diddly squat. She got lucky in that the golem was aiming for Kirche, and its foot only landed next to Louise. Though with its stumped, she was still hit with plenty of debris, and knocked down, both covered in dirt and injured.

Kirche and Tabithat took a few more pot shots, but it accomplished nothing as the earth mage ordered her golem to leave, retreating before competent guards arrived. _Actually, that can't be it. The school doesn't exactly specialize in competence. Kirche is likely at the level of most of the teachers._

With that thought he kissed Siesta on the lips, told her to forget about tonight and go to sleep, and then headed off to follow the golem. _Someone _competent had to deal with this situation.

* * *

Now Nightingale wasn't very good at tracking. In fact he hadn't really ever trained at the art. Turns out though, it isn't very hard to track an 80 foot tall stone construct moving through a forest where the trees aren't nearly that big. However, if by some miraculous chance one lost sight of the construct, they could easily follow the _very_ large and _very_ clear foot prints it left behind.

All he did was use his assumed form's ability to turn invisible, and slightly modified the shape change to gain the wings of the Astal Deva that he was. And then, he invisibly flew through the air, following the golem. It certainly traveled faster than most humans could have, but then he was also moving significantly faster.

After nearly two whole hours of flying, he finally got to observe as the golem proceeded to crumble. They had arrived at some hut that the earth mage apparently intended to use as a base of some sort. He silently glided down and landed softly on the ground a short distance away to stand back and observe.

The thief was wearing a simple cloak with a hood hiding its face. After glancing around, it removed its hood, revealing itself to be a female with green hair that Nightingale recalled seeing at the academy. If he recalled correctly she was a rather busty, beautiful woman that tended to carry stacks of paper to the headmaster's office. She didn't have the pentagram designating her as a noble, but ate with the teachers, and was a mage. _The headmaster's hot and sexy secretary I believe._

Ms. Secretary – Nightingale was sure he had been told her name before but didn't remember it at the moment – was carrying two objects. One was her wand, a short stick that wasn't too notable. The other was a thick metal object about 3 foot long at a first guess. He thought it might have been a metal club, but threw away the idea when he noticed the lack of hand holds to swing with.

_What the hell is that._

Ms. Secretary didn't seem to know either as, after putting away her wand, she grabbed it in both hands and started swinging it around saying random phrases like "destroy" and "fire ball" and "boom" and stuff that sounded like actual spell incantations. What mattered was that she appeared to be completely harmless at the moment.

_**Detect Evil!** _He silently cast the spell-like ability, only to note that she was not, in fact, evil.

"**Kelpstrand!"**

He shouted out, breaking his invisibility as he did. To the hot thief, it would have looked like he stepped out of thin air. At the same time that sea weed shot out of the ground and wrapped her up, robbing her of the freedom to move. Yes, she resisted, but this was a spell designed to be used against monsters specializing in brute force, not frail babes.

"My, oh my. Someone has been very naughty."

He said in as suave a tone as he could while strolling up to her. She looked at him in confusion, and then tried to move, only to find herself completely restrained by the kelpstrand.

"You, you are Louise's commoner! What did you do?" She demanded of him, fear obvious in her eyes as his hand casually reached to her chest. "What are you doing!" She demanded as he slid his hand into her bosom, only to pull out her wand, and put it away in his pouch.

"I'm her familiar, for however much longer I find the contract convenient. I'm not a common human, in case the _angelic wings_ on my back weren't a big enough give away. Hell, I'm not even human anymore. I used magic to restrain you, thought it was blatantly obvious. And I'm disarming you miss. Now, if you would be so kind as to let go of this metal object? I would _love_ to have to get rough with you."

He whispered that last line into her ears. He didn't intend to go through on the threat, but people tended to be more willing to comply with you when they thought you were an unhinged psychotic monster barely restraining your urges to make them hurt in some way. It worked too as she let go of the metal object, allowing him to also stash it, making her eyes bulge at the lack of making sense of that action.

"Now miss, my name is Nightingale. May I know yours? Also, if I release you from your chains will you promise to not run away? Oh, and I do have a way of detecting lies. And I _hate_ being lied to."

He asked in the most polite voice that he could muster as he stepped back away from her.

"My current alias is Longueville, I serve current as the secretary of the headmaster. And yes, I promise to not run-" before she finished the sentence, the sea weeds were dispelled, freeing her of their binding.

Nightingale calmly took out his tea set, and sat on the ground, indicating for her to do so as well. As she did, he created some **Unseen Servants**, and used **Create Water** followed by **Prestidigitation** to make "tea".

"Well, Ms. Longueville, would you like some tea while you explain to me about your recent act of thievery? Thievery is illegal, but you aren't evil. I would like to know what drove you to your course of actions. If you don't want to, that is fine. I can just drag you back to the school to let you face this country's so called justice. I'm sure you would be given a fair trial, be granted a punishment in line with your crimes, and would in no way be tortured mistreated, violated, or killed during the legal process for your inability to bribe your way to freedom."

* * *

_**Here are the basics of Nightingale's abilities (before magical boosts)**:_

_Human (Native Outsider to Celestial Planes) Druid 5 / Planar Shepherd (Celestial Planes) 10 / Spelldancer 1_

_Str: 8 / Dec: 8 / Con: 14 / Int: 12 / Wis: 22 / Cha: 14_

_**Feats of Note:** Gatekeeper Initiate, Greensinger Initiate, Natural Spell, Extend Spell, Persistent Spell_

_**Items**: Armor of the Beast set + Wildshape Amulet (overall, wildshape like a lvl 20 druid), Monk's Belt, Amulet of Wisdom +6, Ring of Utility, Anklets of Translocation, Gloves of the Masterful Strategist_

_**Ring of Utility**: Prestidigitation (at will) + Comprehend Language (constant) + Disguise Self (at will) + Unseen Servant (at will) + Mend (at will), custom item value of 11,000gp_


	8. Golem Crushing

**TeninChwang**

_Thank you, and no, no plans lemons. Mostly because I can't write them. I shall not write poorly written sex scenes._

**Randomguy**

_Thank you, and yes still being continued. Although rather slowly._

**anonymous001**

_Unearthly Beauty is an actual, existing spell. Yes, it is possible to make yourself so sexy in DnD that you kill with it. Too bad druids don't have any spells to project a massive image of themselves into the air. Otherwise the epic battle where Saito dies could be won by Nightingale just flashing all the troops. _

* * *

Nightingale sighed as he finished listening to the sob story that the thief was trying to sell him. It took him over an hour of coaxing and threatening to get all the information that he felt that he deserved.

First, her real name was Matilda de Something. Really, he wasn't that good with names. She used to be a noble, before the king of Albion had her family exterminated for disagreeing with him. Now, she ran an orphanage, making money by stealing stuff.

She had been hired by 'Reconquista', an organization planning to take over the Holy Lands where the elves lived, to steal the 'Staff of Destruction'. She had been testing that staff when he had found her. Apparently, they were likely to wipe out the orphanage if she returned without the staff.

He sighed again, looking down at his cup.

_Times like this, I wish I was a regular adventurer. I could just tell her to go fornicate herself, and walk away with the staff._

He was brought out of his ruminations, when he noticed that something _huge_ had just appeared in front of him. He glanced up just in time to see a gigantic fist picking up Ms. Matilda, while another was headed straight for his face.

_Oh, fuck me._

He didn't have time to dodge as the fist struck him dead-on, sending him flying back and rolling along the ground. Thankfully, his utterly ridiculous list of buff spells meant this was more of a glancing blow, knocking him back, but not actually hurting him.

_How the hell does that work anyways? How the hell does having tough-_

His question was cut off as he was forced to roll out of the way of a foot stomping down upon the ground where he stood, and crushing a tree in the process.

"Didn't I take away your wand?" He yelled at her as he flapped his wings and soared into the air. "**Brilliant Aura!**" His body was covered in some sort of glowing nimbus as he floated into the air, and trying to move away from the colossus of destruction.

"I had a backup!" Matilda yelled back, as the golem tried to punch him again. He somehow managed to duck under the swing, only to notice a series of earth missiles headed his way, courtesy of Matilda. "Now die, so I can take the Staff of Destruction from you!"

_I was just about to give it back to her too._

He didn't even bother responding to the earth missiles. As they almost touched him, they appeared to hit some sort of magical shield, and be repelled back, striking the shoulder of the golem where Matilda was. She easily brought up the golem arm to block the attack though, missing as Nightingale reached into his pouch to pull out a single needle.

"**Splinterbolt."** There was no need to yell the spell name. There was no need to brag. The effect spoke for itself. He just flicked his finger, sending the piece of wood sailing through the air like a missile.

The needle split into three pieces, all of them glowing in the same aura that he was, as they headed for Matilda. She just closed the hands of her golem, confident in its ability to defend her. A moment later, her scream lit up the night as all three bolts simply sailed through the golem as if it was made out of air, and stabbed into her, during damage that one would expect from a hill giant's bow, not mere splinted of wood.

"May I suggest surrendering? My aura makes all my weapon attacks simply pass through your defenses, _and_ do extra damage."

_I also only have one more Splinterbolt for the day._

That was something that she did _not_ need to know though. Of course, he doubted he would need more than those two attacks. Her left shoulder had an inch wide hole drilled through it, her right thigh had a similar sized hole, and he had nearly blown apart her left hip.

"I will kill you!" Matilda yelled in a completely uncharacteristic manner. Huh, having your body torn to pieces made people rather upset. Who knew?

The golem's hand came rushing out, and somehow managed to catch Nightingale in his flight, grabbing him. He just sneered at the woman as she glared daggers at him.

"I will crush you to death!" She yelled, before the golem squeezed its hand, only for him to slip out like a bar of soap held by a prison inmate.

"Sorry, but in case you didn't notice, I'm fucking paranoid. Do you _honestly_ think I wouldn't have a counter for _grappling?_" He taunted as the next first missed him, while one more gave only a glancing shot.

"**Splinterbolt!"**

This time Matilda did her best to dodge, but two of the needles still stuck her, one more drilling into her right leg, while another stuck her in the chest. Nightingale rose higher into the sky, out of the reach of the damned golem. It had poor aim, but he was _not_ waiting around until it got lucky.

The witch cried in pain as she lay on all fours atop the shoulder of her golem. Nightingale didn't blame her. What she experienced was comparable to being shot by five bolts from a _heavy ballista_ of all things!

_Which, in hindsight kind of puts my melee attacks in perspective_.

"Now, may I suggest surrendering? I was _going to_ let you go, but then you just _had to_ take the opening to try and attack me. True, you probably thought I was going to turn you in, so it was a rational response. But still, _I don't like being attacked_."

Matilda's reply was to throw up blood. A moment later her golem crumbled, causing her to fall as she clearly fell unconscious from the utterly excessive damage that Nightingale had given her.

He managed to catch her before she hit the ground, but there was still the problem of the two of them plummeting towards the ground; if he were to just suddenly stop, she would still take damage from the fall.

He ended up managing to discharge his **Heart of Air** at the last moment, causing the two of them to start falling like feathers. Physics tells us that the sudden change in speed should have dealt severe damage to their bodies. His magic was presently busy telling physics to shut up and go cry in a corner.

_Let's see. Horribly torn muscles. Excessive bleeding. Clearly beyond her limits. Still, if I hit her with __**Heal**__, she will likely end up at full strength again, and start attacking me._

He sighed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Still, he couldn't let her die. So, removing her backup wand – and quickly checking the body for other wands – he used his form's **Heal** ability to stop her from dying.

Matilda nearly immediately opened her eyes, as all of her wounds seemed to magically disappear. She glanced up, and noticed that Nightingale was staring down at her. As she did, the events of the night returned to her mind.

The girl quickly jumped to her feet, twisting and delivering a back kick straight into Nightingale's face.

He took a step back, stunned that she had gotten a lucky hit in on him, before shrugging it off. She had taken that time to turn back and knee him in the groins, as well as elbow him in the neck.

"Enough!"

He finally yelled in a deep voice, grabbing both her arms and shoving her, hard, into a nearby tree. The tree shook, letting out a dull thud, while the air left Matilda's body.

She tried to struggle, but her knee hurt, as if she had just kneed a metal statue. The phrase 'balls of steal' came to mind. The strength he held her with also made her think that the metal statue analogy wasn't too far off. She considered herself pretty skilled at fighting, but apparently Nightingale also had experience, as well as utterly inhumane strength.

"Magic girl, magic. I don't have any weak points on my body where you can strike for extra damage."

He would have continued explaining to her the futility of the situation, except she suddenly slipped through his grasp. It was like holding water. No matter how hard he squeezed, it would just slide away.

She at least appeared to take his words to heart, as she turned and ran for it, rather than staying to fight.

_At least she is persistent_

"_**Giant's Wrath."**_ He hissed, as he reached into his pouch, pulling out a few pebbles. He chucked two at her, causing both to turn into powerful boulders. One stuck a tree, simply knocking it down, while the other stuck her in the back, smashing her to the ground with a powerful force that appeared to break out of her shoulders.

"You know, I'm tired to this game." Nightingale commented in a calm tone. "I was honestly going to give you the Staff of Destruction and let you go, but then you attacked me with a giant fucking golem of doom. And then, once I heal you, you take that as an opportunity to attack me again."

Despite his words, he spoke in an utterly and completely monotone voice, while slowly strolling up to her.

"So now, you are going to go back to the academy with me, Ms. Fouquet, where you _will_ be handed over to the authorities. If you try to escape or fight again, I will take out my frustration on your body."

Matilda stopped struggling to try and get off the ground at that. She could hear the raw _hunger_ that had entered his voice at that last statement. He had just reached her again, and kneeled down next to her, grabbing her ass before brushing his hand up her body, until finally it reached her head. There, he grabbed her hair, pulling it up, and looking her in the eyes.

"After that, if you _still_ try to run away, I will lay claim to your behind. I hear some girls like that, but you don't seem to be the type. So, which will it be? Do I get a new toy to enjoy, or are you going to come willingly?"

As he spoke, the glow from his **Brilliant Aura** dissipated. It seemed that the spell had finally run its course.

Matilda stared into his eyes in horror for a straight minute, trying to figure out if this was really the pleasant gentleman that she had just had tea with. "I will come willingly." She said at last, with her eyes downcast.

"Shame." Nightingale muttered. "Well, I can always hope that you were lying."

With that, he stood up, letting go of her hair. Matilda let her head fall, before letting out an 'eep' as Nightingale rolled her over and picked her up bridle style.

"What, I figured this would be faster."

And with that, he flapped his wings, taking to the air, before quickly turning the pair of them invisible. Hopefully they could get before the yard turned into total chaos.

* * *

It was less than an hour before Nightingale's designating praying time by the time he got back to the castle. It really made him reconsider having so many spells constantly on himself. Sure he was immune to most inconveniences, but they took forever to set up.

He landed just outside of the academy gates, breaking his invisibility, removing his wings, and pulling both of Matilda's wands, as well as the 'Staff of Destruction' out of his bag.

"By the way, I just noticed that my hand lets out a glow whenever I touch this rod of doomy thingy. Do you know why that is?" He asked suddenly in a completely casual tone.

Matilda glared at the man that had threatened to rape her if she did not comply with her demands. "No." She hissed out.

"Ah well, probably nothing important." He said with a shrug, as he led her through the gates, to notice a large crowd of Professors gathering to look at the hole. Apparently five hours after the assault and they were still trying to figure out what had happened.

"You know, I get the feeling that had I not gone after you, the only way you would have been caught would have been if you returned to the academy for some reason." Nightingale remarked.

Matilda glared at him. "I was going to do that if I couldn't figure out how to active the rod soon."

"Never mind." Nightingale sighed.

Off in the distance, he saw a pink haired midget running his way. "Oy, stupid fam-" Louise quickly shut up under the glare that he gave.

"Fouquet." Nightingale said, pointing at Matilda. "Staff of Destruction." He said, handing the rod to Louise. "Fouquet's wand." He handed her the first wand. "Fouquet's back up wand." He handed her the second wand. "I followed her, we fought, and I captured her and brought her back. Now I'm going to go take a walk in the woods."

Everyone had shut up and listened when Louise came up to him yelling. So now everyone heard what he said, and watched as he strolled away, out the gates. They were so dumbstruck, no one noticed Matilda snatch a wand from Louise until she had summoned a giant golem, using it as cover to run away.

Nightingale heard the noise, and noticed the golem in the background, but he really didn't feel like fighting it again. He was sure that the academy's staff could handle such a 'minor' problem.

For example, there was that blast of flame shooting out of nowhere that appeared to be melting a hole through the golem.

_Damn, whoever did that; I can't compete with that kind of power_.

Then there were the blasts of lightning that tore the golem's arms off. Yet, from what he could tell, those two were the only ones really doing anything.

_So, two competent professors, and a bunch of idiots that ran away?_

Suddenly, the golem exploded, its top literally flying off.

_Right, we also had Louise the ultimate evoker. What kind of moron decided she was useless anyways? Her power levels are a warmage's wet dream!_

* * *

"Where the hell were you?" Louise demanded when Nightingale finally returned from his stroll through the woods. He looked completely refreshed and relaxed. It was already near breakfast time, and the sun was out and beautiful.

"Taking a stroll through the woods. I like taking strolls in the woods." He replied with a shrug.

"What about Fouquet?" The girl demanded.

"What about her? Is she not enjoying her prison?" He asked innocently.

"She got away!" Louise yelled, exasperated. "Because of you!"

"I'm not seeing how this is my fault." Nightingale commented.

Professor Colbert the Bald appeared to explain things. "When you left Ms. Longueville with us, she was able to take a wand from Ms. Valliere, summon a golem, and escape. We defeated the golem, but by then Ms. Longueville was gone."

Nightingale physically face palmed. "So let me get this straight. I was able to take down Fouquet by myself, after she had summoned her golem. Louise, plus the _entire staff of the academy_ failed to beat her after she was _disarmed_, and had a broken shoulder. And this massive incompetence is somehow my fault?"

Colbert bristled at that. "I do wonder how you were able to restrain such a powerful mage however."

"Trade secret. Well, at least the Staff of Destruction or whatever is safe right?" The two mages pointedly looked down at that. "Don't tell me, she got the rod as well?" As they kept looking away, he burst out laughing. "Damn, that is one accomplished chick."

He shook his head, before moving towards the castle. "Well, I'm going to see if they need my help in the kitchens."

The two mages stared as he strolled by them, before Louise grabbed his hand. "Don't you have some way to track her down?"

_Let's see. Scrying or Greater Scrying. We have her wand. If I went through her bed, might even be able to find a piece of hair. Circle Dance if I'm willing to be less exact. Spend 24 hours getting an animal companion that can track her. Cry of Ysgard to get a few centaurs that can track for me._

"Do you? I'm just a familiar, you lot are the mages and nobles, remember? I don't see how this is my problem really."

"Mr. Nightingale, it is imperative that we find Ms. Longueville. If the royal court finds out about this-" Colbert began diplomatically.

"Professor, I'm neither a student nor a professor here. Most importantly, I am _not_ a noble. It is a _noble's_ obligation to find and locate this thief. Do not push your jobs and responsibilities onto me. You all have enjoyed the benefits of being nobles. Don't shed the responsibilities."

Professor Colbert just started as Nightingale once more walked off. Louise tried to maintain a firm grip on his arm, but that just resulted in him pulling her along, until she fell face first into the ground. After that, she let go, and he went off to help the servants.

* * *

Three days later, the academy finally found itself unable to keep the theft hidden from the royal palace. As a result, a royal retinue – including the Princess – was supposed to be arriving today to help with the search. Granted, it was far too late for them to have any hope of finding any evidence.

Granted, Nightingale had acquired quite a lot of Matilda's hair that was stored in a glass vase with a top on, so he could easily find her at any time using Scrying. The problem was that he wasn't interested.

Also, last time he had only won because she had no idea of his capabilities. Okay, that wasn't accurate. Last time he had only won _that easily_ because blah blah blah.

_Yeah, that is better. I would still win if we fought again… probably._

He just had no intention of meeting a chick wielding a Tarresque+ sized golem that thought he was planning to rape her. For some reason that tended to sour relations, and he _really_ didn't want to fight such a creation.

"They are probably going to question you about how you captured Fouquet." Siesta told him, as she walked next to him.

"I will try and find some way to not tell them." Nightingale replied. "My methods are a secret, that I want to keep for now. They would upset _a lot_ of people."

Siesta stared at him. "What sort of secrets do you mean?"

The boy sighed. "Sadly I promised Ms. Joanna that she would be the first one that I tell. Well, in hindsight, people are probably going to find out soon. Do you know where Ms. Joanna might be? I would rather not break my promise to her."

Siesta was thoughtful for a moment. "Due to the arrival of the royal party, there aren't any classes today. She is probably with her familiar."

"So, let us go look for a Griffon in the courtyard. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

The pair quickly marched off, Siesta wondering in curiosity what Nightingale's secret was. Nightingale in turn wondered if he was physically capable of keeping any secrets.

_You know, I think it might be simpler to just sit down everyone even remotely important, and explain everything point by point to them. Would save me a lot of time._

Besides, he had a better understanding of their magic than they did of his.

* * *

They ended up collecting Kirche, Tabitha, and Louise along with Joanna. Apparently the group had spotted him approaching the girl, and had approached him. Kirche and Louise out of jealousy, Tabitha out of curiosity.

Currently they were slightly into the forests, in a rather private area. They had about two hours before the royalty showed up. Kirche and Tabitha were standing next to each other, Slyphid behind them. Joanna was slightly to the side, leaning against Sora, with Siesta standing next to her. Louise was frowning on her own.

"So what was it that you wanted to show us?" Louise demanded.

"Show Joanna, because I promised her to. The rest of you are here of your own volition, not mine. If you find yourself bored with this that really isn't my fault or problem."

He took a deep breath, as if preparing himself for something. "Now, as all of you have probably picked up by now, I'm a commoner. The thing is that, when you hear 'commoner', you make a lot of assumptions. You assume that the government system where I'm from is the same as it is here. Therefore, you assume that what is true for commoners here in Halkeigenia are true everywhere else."

"What do you mean?" Siesta asked.

"To put simply, Halkeigenia is a mageocracy. This means that mages rule. Here in particular they do so by declaring that having magic makes you a noble, and magic is required for nobility, and justifying it through religion. Other countries are a tad bit less subtle. I have seen countries where magic users simply declare that they are stronger, and everyone that doesn't bow to their rule is getting murdered. No justification via god or anything. Just 'I can kill you, so you shall bend knee to me'.

"Elsewhere, it is different. In the majority of the places that I have visited, magic is not considered to give you the right to rule. Most nobles don't have magic, and most magic users aren't nobles. Most of the kings and queens don't have the ability or training to use magic."

"Germania has something similar, though the majority of nobles are still mages." Kirche commented.

"Wait. If you mean that some commoners are mages…" Joanna just cut off.

"**Create Water." **Nightingale said calmly, generating 32 gallons of water that splashed down out of the air. "Yes, I can use magic. However, I am not a noble. I was born a commoner, and I will most likely die without ever becoming nobility. Mostly because I'm not interested really."

"So you are a water mage? That is the big secret that you dragged us off here for? That you are a water mage?" Kirche asked confused.

Nightingale just sighed, and released his Deva form's angelic wings. They fluttered for a moment, making everyone stare. "No, my being able to use magic is just a fraction of the truth. And no, I'm not a water mage. My magic is _different_ from your magic here. It isn't stronger. Hell, I would say Fouquet and I are equally skilled at magic. However, she had no idea what to expect from me. In turn, she used textbook tactics that I had read up on. Hence I utterly trounced her.

"Where I come from, there are a lot of different types of magic. There are Arcane Casters – which you all fall into – who use the magical energies stored in their bodies to cast magic. There are Divine Casters who siphon magical energy from some greater being and manipulate that instead. There are Psions, who use the power of their minds to locate the fundamental equations of reality and reprogram those with magic. Those are the three major divisions that most magic users fall into. There are a few who don't exactly fit into any of those.

There are Warlocks who have made a pact with some demonic force. Their magic is weaker, but it will _never_ run out. They don't have willpower exhaustion, or anything resembling that. Then there are binders that will literally summon demonic souls, and bind them to their bodies to gain powers. There are Dragon Desciples who, if I understand correctly, gained some aspect of dragon hood to have infinite casting of rather weak spells. There are True Namers who have developed an entire language to describe how horribly they suck."

He paused for a moment to take a breath. "I say this to you, so you can understand why I keep saying magic user. In my world, a wizard is an arcane caster. A sorcerer is a different kind of arcane caster. A Warlock is a magic user that isn't even an arcane caster. A mage can refer to any of half a dozen different disciplines of magic. Heck, we have _bards_ who use magic by singing; I have once seen a hundred cats tear the same number of armed guards apart, because a bard's singing made them that much more powerful.

"In my world, the closest thing we have to you lot are Shugenja. They are arcane casters that work by manipulating elements. The reason I say that, is because _most_ of our spell casters don't work around the four or five elements that you do. Or any specific elements at all. For example," he reached into his pouch, pulled out a scorpion, and threw it "**Giant Vermin**"

The scorpion grew, until it was four times as tall as a human being. The girls shrunk back at that.

"This spell doesn't fall under any of the elements. The most flashy ones can generally be classified as one of the elements, sure. But that doesn't mean that all of them can. I'm not a fire, wind, water, earth, or void mage. I'm not a dot, line, triangle, or square class mage. The classification for my style of magic is simply too different to classify in the terms you are familiar with.

"Or in short, I'm a commoner that can use magic that is very different from the magic that all of you know. Now, any questions?"

Louise spoke up. "How does it work for nobles to not have magic? The Founder-"

"Stated that nobility comes from magic? First, there isn't one singular religion where I'm from. There are literally hundreds of gods. Maybe thousands. Simply put, what the Founder Brimir said doesn't matter in a world where no one ever heard of the guy, let alone what he had said. As for how it works? Well, it works by putting people in charge of the government based on their ability to run the government and country efficiently, rather than their ability to blow things up with a pointy stick.

"Also, there is the fact that magic alone doesn't make you all powerful. There are warriors in my world who can beat all but the most skilled of wizards with their swords. Monks that can take down all but the cleverest sorcerers with their fists. Magic is the ultimate force in the universe if you are sufficiently clever, paranoid, and put enough thought into it. If you don't know about the right spells, or didn't put them up ahead of time, where the right spells can vary based on the opponent, you might be taken down by a guy wielding a squid as a weapon."

Nightingale shuddered at the memories of that. Having an uppity egotistical cleric murdered by a squid was amusing, but also highly disturbing.

"Then the reason you used a basket in the fight was-" Siesta began.

"To make a point yes. _I_ might not be good enough to beat up your mages using a basket without magic. But I have met people who are. People who couldn't use the simplest cantrips, but can slaughtered angels and demons with their swords. Frankly, some of those guys scare me. Most though, even the most talented, don't have the wits to put their skills to good use, and aren't much of a threat."

_Yes, having defenses so ridiculously high, that the only way for them to hit me is to get lucky, or not attack directly with a sword tends to help. The clever ones always figure out some new trick though. And even the idiots can get lucky sometimes._

"And what type of magic do you use?" Kirche asked at last.

"_That_ is a secret. I will tell you that I mostly use it to increase my physical capabilities to make me ridiculously hard to kill. I _really_ don't like dying."

"Wings?" Tabitha asked.

"Those come from the plane of existence that I have made my home. Yes, I have ended up making the plane of the angels my home. It lets me take on the forms of some of the weaker angels."

_Where weaker is defined as being about on par with their square classed mages._

"So any more secrets?" Joanna asked.

"Well, I'm an adventurer. Basically adventurers are idiots who hear 'a magical monster of doom is terrorizing a town' and think 'cool. I'm going to kill that creature' and then do it. It is a good way to get powerful really quickly. So long as you don't die anyways. It also makes you filthy rich. Which reminds me."

Reaching into his Handy Haversack, he pulled out a ring, and tossed it to Siesta. "That is a custom created magical ring. You don't need to actually _have_ magic to use it though. It has three spells in it; **Mend **lets you repair small breaks, cuts, or tears in items. **Unseen Servant** creates a semi visible servant for an hour that can perform simple tasks that you command it to. **Prestidigitation** lets you do a variety of simple tricks, like adjusting the taste of something, instantly cleaning something, making a small light to read by, instantly folding clothes, etc. They are all relatively minor tricks, but very useful. To cast any of the spells, just say the name of the spell while wearing the ring."

Siesta stared at the ring. "Wasn't this rather expensive?"

"Well, it cost me five thousand pure gold coins, which converted would come out to about fifty thousand ecu. So I suppose it is _slightly_ expensive? Just think of it as a gift to make your work easier."

"_Slightly expensive!_" Louise, Kirche, and Joanna screeched at once. "Fifty THOUSAND ecu is _slightly expensive?_ You could buy a castle with that!" Joanna continued in horror.

"Eh, I have about sixteen times as much still in pure gold in my magical bag of holding. At my level of adventuring, that really isn't all that much. Honestly, where I'm from, there are spells to temporarily summon others to aid you. For tasks requiring multiple days, I get paid the equivalent of about ten thousand ecu a day. Granted, those tasks usually come with a rather high chance of death, but still. If not for this familiar runes binding me, I would have made more than that sum in the time I have been at this academy."

Everyone but Tabitha's eyes were flashing pure gold. Sure their families were rich, but even by nobility standards Nightingale was wealthy as fuck.

Siesta considered simply asking him for a few thousand ecu, so that she could just retire to some mansion with her family. If only she could figure out the appropriate way to ask. It would require offering something in exchange. But all she had was her body… Suddenly Siesta blushed as a rather welcoming thought came to mind.

Kirche came from Germania where titles came from money. And apparently Nightingale had enough money to become a duke. If she were to take him as a husband, their family could finally compete with those damned Valliere. That he used a different type of magic would also make him pretty much invaluable to Germania…

Joanna came from a family that had struck hard times. They were having trouble staying out of debt. They were also somewhat low ranking nobles, so marrying commoners from time to time was acceptable. Nightingale had just become _the_ solution to her family's financial problems. Not to mention, if what he said was true, he would likely be able to perform plenty of heroics on the battlefield, increasing their nobility title as well.

_If dad were here, he would be pulling out a marriage contract already. Mom would be pulling out a notebook to track down the nearest priest._

Louise didn't get much of an allowance from her parents. If she abused her position as master, maybe she could take Nightingale's money. That would give her plenty of allowance to buy pretty things. Maybe even decorate her room!

Tabitha didn't really care about the money. It wasn't money that she needed. It was strength, and magic that Halkegenia did not possess. Nightingale had that. Had the strength that might be able to save her.

_I need to test him._

"So why did you agree to becoming a familiar?" Siesta asked.

"Generally in my world summoning spells require the summoner to be at least as powerful as the summonee. I had assumed that that was the case. Which would have pegged me as being surrounded by a few dozen kids all of my level or above. Basically I made a bunch of false assumptions, and acted on those. Now that the contract is in place, I really don't feel like killing Louise just to break it. I don't know enough about the contract to try other methods.

"Of course, if it comes down to being treated like a slave and killing the person treating me like a slave… Well it certainly wouldn't be my first kill. I utterly _abhor_ any form of slavery after all."

The girls shuddered at the carefree tone he used to mention killing. Either he was a good actor, or he wasn't lying about having committed plenty of murders before. It was really strange. Usually he was a nice charming guy, but sometimes he casually talked about things like that.

"Anyways, Pegasus or Unicorn?" Nightingale suddenly asked, leaving the girls stunned in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Joanna asked.

"I'm going to cast a spell to summon up a Pegasus or a Unicorn to serve as my companion for a year. I can only have one, and the spell takes an hour to cast. So which do you think I should have? A Unicorn that can heal some minor injuries, or a Pegasus to fly on?"

The girls stared at him. "Are you going to summon a familiar?"

"No, I believe it is classified as a servant. Familiars are something that arcane casters use. Though I suppose I could also pick up an elemental or animal companion. Sadly that ritual takes 24 hours of meditation…"

"Different. Not stronger. Different." Tabitha said to alleviate the worries of the other girls.

"Yeah, just because I can have more than one of what you would call a familiar, doesn't mean that I am stronger."

_Well, I am stronger, but don't want to point that out._

"So, Unicorn or Pegasus? Which do you think I should go with?

* * *

_**Fight with Fouquet**_

Defensive buffs he has on that came into play: **Friendly Fire**, which makes ranged attacks useless against him, **Freedom of Movement** which is why the golem couldn't grab him, and a ton of AC boosters, along with DR 10/evil, and some temporary HP. One of the golem's fists actually hit him, but only removed his temporary hit points, so he played it off as if it was just a harmless glancing blow, to force Fouquet to try other, more inferior tactics.

Basically he is a moderately paranoid Druid that can persist a number of spells on himself. His main weaknesses are attacks that would, in DnD terms, force saves instead of attack rolls. Halkegenia mages could do it. They just don't necessarily know that that is his weakness.

As for the melee fight, between DR and immunity to crits, it doesn't matter where Fouquet strikes him. She is a mage, not a trained knight with a high degree of strength.

**Brilliant Aura** makes all weapon attacks go through non-living matter, and do increased damage. Basically the first volley of attacks all hit her, because she was trying to block with her golem, and didn't bother dodging. And yes, **Splinterbolt** with **Brilliant Aura** from a level 16 caster, does about the same damage (0.5 less on average) than a heavy ballista bolt. It literally would be a siege weapon if it didn't just pass through walls.

As for why Fouquet survived the attacks, it is because this isn't a DnD game. The injuries didn't hit any fatal spots, so it would take a bit of time to bleed to death. They would have killed her, just not instantly.

And no, Nightingale wouldn't have actually raped her. Had Fouquet tried to see if he was actually lying, she would have easily spotted the lie. The thing is though; DnD characters are very psychotic by real human standards. His behavior of using potentially lethal attacks to beat her within an inch of her life to capture her is very normal for where Nightingale comes from. In more normal places, he comes off as an unhinged homicidal maniac. She was too scared to think rationally.

As for why he let Fouquet just run away, mostly because it puts the nobility in a tight spot.

_**Revealing his Magic**_

Pretty much the way things are going, it is inevitable. When he let Fouque go, he didn't think of the consequences. Like being strictly questioned of how he had captured her. It is inevitable that his ability to use magic would get out. He just wants to upset as few people are possible with it. As well as probably shame a few nobles in the process…

_**Unicorn vs Pegasus**_**:** The spell used is Valiant Steed. I'm not sure which to go with at the moment, though I'm leaning towards a Pegasus, simply because flying mounts are more useful.


End file.
